Determining Version of Windows

As some of you already know, I'm having to do some digging to reconcile a problem we have with our MS licenses -- Namely, I think we have more Windows installed on machines than we have legal licenses for. Ah, the joys of people copying cds.

So, I'm going from machine to machine determining each version of Windows 2000 we have and the the product key. On our client machines, that's easy -- To find the version, I just go through Start --> Program Files --> Accessoires --> System Tools --> System Information.

However, I find that on at least one of our servers, this feature is missing (haven't examined the others yet). But I need to find out which machines are Windows 2000 Server and which are Windows 2000 Advanced Server.

So, where else can I go to see this? Is it in the registry somewhere? And if so, is there also a similar entry for Office?

ctrl+****+esc
task manager
about menu

nt explorer has the same menu

I use AIDA32 to audit my systems at login.... It's off the market, (it was freeware), but you can d/l it from here.

Create a public folder on the server with read only rights for domain users and unzip the files into there. Then create a write only folder in the same place so the users can dump their files there. Then add the following to the login script.

' Carry out inventory check using Aida32
'***************************************
Set objShell = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
Set objExecObject1 = objShell.Exec("cmd /c X:\aida32\AIDA32 /R x:\aida32reports\$HOSTNAME /CSV /AUDIT /SILENT /SAFE")

Then every time someone logs into a computer, including servers, the machine is audited to an incredible level of detail in a matter of seconds and the report is dumpped into the aida32reports folder. If you then open aida32 on your machine and drag and drop all the reports onto it it will run a complete inventory for you..... Sweet :D

Aida32 Rock! Sadly, it's been baught by Lavalys and rename Everest. :( It's not free anymore!

It still works just fine as long as you aren't shipping in new MB's etc. every day. And the OS stuff works just fine on XP pro.

Quote:

---

ctrl+**** +esc

---

Damn; thats a button thats well over due :D

Got this one though:

Quote:

---

Originally posted here by foxyloxley
Damn; thats a button thats well over due :D

Got this one though:

---

:rofl:

foreign languages can be tricky. just missed one h...

i wanna thak keyboard...

I keep forgetting about Aida...I hadn't played with it much, but now that I am....ooooooh...what glorious goodness this is!

Ok, so I'm looking at the report on the OS, and I see this:

Quote:

---

Licensed Processors 8

---

What's that mean? Does that mean I can use the CD that installation came from to install it on 7 additional machines?

Quote:

---

quote:
Licensed Processors 8

---

??? windows 2000 data center? it cant be.

Ah man, got my hopes up...That would've made my job SO much easier. :D

Quote:

---

??? windows 2000 data center? it cant be.

---

For the benefit of the watching ID ten T error[ID 10 T]
Could you please enhance your reply to include some details ?

To give the aforementioned ID10T a chance of following the plot.

I think he was referring to the fact that license information (how many you licenses you have) for an OS is not kept on the installation itself, but rather at the Windows Data Center. Therefore, sicne Aida has no access to that database remotely, it couldn't possibly know how many licenses I have.

licensed processor = 8 <--- posted by angelic
windows 200 licensing schemma
Windows 2000 server = 2 processor
windows advancer server = 4 proc
windows datacenter > 4

when he posted that msg, i was thinking about windows boot message and correlate it to that one. So, i figure out that it was a windows 2000 data center. just wondering man to help angelic.




edit
interpretation error removed sry.
/edit

hi

Quote:

---

Licensed Processors 8

---

means it is lisenced to 8 processors max.... one machine................number of processors that exist within the hardware platform


genarally for the purposes of counting the number of processors which require licensing, a multicore chip with "n" processor cores are be counted as "n" processors....read the Complete End USer Lisence for the product you are looking at

eg. http://www.microsoft.com/windows2000/datacenter/howtobuy/pricing/default.asp]Windows 2000 Pricing and Licensing[/url]

Quote:

---

License Model
Windows 2000 Datacenter Server will be available to customers only through qualified OEMS. Windows Datacenter Server is licensed based on the number of processors that exist within the hardware platform. Microsoft is licensing the product to OEMs. The minimum license is 4 processors on an 8 processor capable computer. A license can be bought for 4, 8, 12, 16, 20, 24, 28 or 32 processors.
The Windows Datacenter Program

---

--Good Luck--

Thanks SwordFish.

Caco, Foxy was referring to himself, so don't be offended. The only person Foxy was flaming was Foxy. ;)

supposing that is a windows datacenter, as far i know it cant be an illegal one since those licenses come with the machine (server).

Do you have any documentation of the server hardware acquisition? the data center license (still supposing that is a windows data center ) may be mixed there....

if you dont have the original docs, you can go to server reseller and ask for it.. those licenses arent common and pretty easy to trace back...

Quote:

---

Caco, Foxy was referring to himself, so don't be offended. The only person Foxy was flaming was Foxy

---

Yep: the ID10T in question was undeniably a FOX ............ :D

Thanks for the clarification, it all helps.

Hey Hey,

I'll avoid your mutliple processor discussion... Have you considered Start --> run --> winver.exe as a quick way of determining the operating system version... it's a rather fast and handy way of doing things.


Peace
HT

winver...Didn't know that one. Learn something new every day!

Unfortunately, winver only showed me that I have Win2k and what level of patching I have...It still doesn't show Pro, Server, Adv. Server, etc., which is what I'm needing. Basically it's just the server issue -- some of our servers are Adv. Server and others just Server, so those are the ones I need to differentiate between.

Anyway, Aida32 is solving all my problems just about. I just installed it to a network folder and have been running it on every machine. Wow, that program works wonders, I had no idea how deep it went into information gathering.

The only thing about Aida that I'm finding is that it seems to overlook Office keys. Are there any other tools that focus on those? I'm also auditing what versions of Office we have (we use both 2000 and 97) on various computers and what their keys/licenses are.

Is it the Office 97's that seem to be missing? If so 97 may not have written the license info where it is being looked for.

It's rather odd actually. For instance, I'm running Aida on my machine here as an example at the moment (I have Office 2000 on this one).

Right now I'm looking at Software --> Installed Programs...Nothing Office-realated. No Word, Excel, FrontPage, etc...But it's all there.

Then I go to Software --> Licenses...I see Macromediea, Adobe, etc....No Office whatsoever.

Pretty wierd eh?

This might seem stupid, but then again it took 50 years for someone to figure out a pen cap would open a lock. Have you tried running Windows Update on them? That lists what OS you have, and in particular, on any machine I've used with Windows, including Server 2003, it lists the exact OS.

Try windows Update, and if all patches are already installed, go to the Update history and see which patches were installed, and read through those and see if it lists which OS they were installed for. Might help.

http://windows.about.com/library/tips/bltip206.htm





If all else fails, make Windows fail ;)




There is a registry entry that you can use to force a blue stop screen on Windows 2000. First, backup your registry, then make the following change:

Hive: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
Key: System\CurrentControlSet\Services\i8042prt\Parameters
Name: CrashOnCtrlScroll
Data Type: REG_DWORD
Value: 1 (0 or nothing will disable the feature)

After a restart, holding down the right-side CTRL key and pressing the Scroll lock key twice will generate the Blue Screen of Death.




msinfo32

That Command may help you as well. Start > Run > msinfo32



This will also do that:

winmsd.exe

Angelic:

You may not have a problem. I took a look at my inventory under Aida32 and it only shows Office XP too. Never noticed it before... But then I know we had bought all the licenses we needed directly from Microsoft so I never really looked at the licensing too hard.