windowswindows-registry
Recently I started exploring registry and I found the following registry key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\MICROSOFT\WINDOWS\CURRENTVERSION\UNINSTALL
It seems to contain some codes along with software details. I'm wondering if the codes are the product keys I entered during software installation.
This page on MSDN says that it's a product code. Is the product code different than the product key? If not, are there different product codes for different license types?
This may be a little bit too obvious but the official Microsoft Support article has two possible methods for changing the product key. The first one is certainly the one you've already tried, but there is also a second method using a VBScript.
If you copy and paste the VBScript given in microsoft article http://support.microsoft.com/kb/328874 into a text editor like notepad, and then save the file with a .vbs extension (use quotation marks around the file name if you find that the .txt extension is automatically appended).
Then execute that script with the new product key as an argument as shown in the instructions given beneath the script. Obviously if you have noted saved it to the root of your C:\ drive the exact command you'll need to type into the run dialog will include the location where you have saved it. Alternatively you can run this from the command prompt in the same way.
You can see what updates have been installed on a computer by going to Add/Remove Programs and then clicking View installed updates. The search box comes in very handy here.
Best Answer
{Product Code} in this place is more related to Install/Uninstall technologies (MSI, InstallShield, NSIS, ...) support.
It is not related to licensing (although nothing actually prevents an installer to copy some product key here...).