That information is stored in the registry at the folloing location:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ProductKey

You can run regedit and search for ProductKey to find it--But be very
careful not to make any changes while doing so.  It is always a good idea to
back up the registry before poking arounc there.

>   A customer copies CD directory of cd d:\win98\*.* to c:\w98 in order to
> speed installation and a variety of other reasons.
>
> Customer runs c:\w98\setup months later when a re-installation of Windows
is
> needed and cannot use his serial number.  My guess is that it wants THE
> original serial number from before since about 10 serials have been tried
> all stating that they are invalid while in fact, they are valid.
>
> The time I've seen this in the past, we've had to delete the entire
> c:\Windows directory and reinstall.  Afterwards, any one of the other
serial
> worked.
>
> Is there any other way around this?
>
> --gary r. tennesen
> [log in to unmask]
>
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