Speccy display incorrectly Windows 8 Product key

I have a couple of times noticed that Speccy displays Windows 8 product key incorrectly. This tool [link removed by moderation] displays it correctly. Can you fix this? Speccy and the tool I linked both display a different product key when using Windows 8 and Speccy's information is incorrect. Yesterday I re-installed a friend of mine's laptop. He had Windows 8. I wrote down the key Speccy provided and the key that the tool i linked displayed. They were both different and Windows activation accepted the key which the tool above displayed...

Will this get fixed? This is pretty serious in such cases like re-installing OS and writing down the key. It's really frustrating to notice during the installation process that the key Speccy gave is wrong. Windows 7 key shows without an error.

the software supplied by your link gets flagged by MalwareBytes as containing a Trojan, so beware.

Microsoft has a legal requirement that all PCs with Windows installed by System Builders have to display the COA (Certificate of Authenticity) on the case somewhere. With those installed by individuals, the sticker will initially be on the CD sleeve or box.

If someone cannot get access to the official Windows sticker containing their Product Key, then these sort of software products would have a use, but I've never seen any of them that have 'retrieved' my key and correctly matched it to the COA sticker.

I trust Softpedia. Also, most of Antivirus apps don't consider it as a virus: https://www.virustotal.com/fi/file/7b21eebce9156b86c824be9c4642f52547e962aa3995c708578c1e6441ea72d3/analysis/1412228756/

And Windows 8 laptops don't have that sticker at all(!) Only Windows 7 laptops and older had it.

I did some research to finally find a program that I was happy could discover my product key, and although I had no luck with yours @Juha I successfully tried Belarc Adviser.

Juha - I just noticed the same thing on my newly purchased and configured (and now fully updated) Dell Optiplex 7010 with Win 8 Pro 64-bit. Speccy shows a Win 8 product key different from the product key shown by Belarc Advisor and Jelly Bean Magic Key Finder.

Dear Piriform - why is this? I really like Speccy and the other apps, so I hope there's some interesting info here ... or a fix.

Thanks.

glnz, can you try wpkey_v1.4.7d.zip (5.46 KB) and compare with Speccy? Result matches Speccy on my two machines.

http://rghost.net/47311218

This is real s**t. This issue has been report elsewhere since 2012 and it is still there. And this is a bug reporting forum too!! God help Piriform if they can get their house in order.

CAREFUL:

The file downloaded from the link in Juha's post #1 has malware. I just tried it.

The file name is at softpedia pkeyuibx_v1.5.0.zip. When you unzip it and run pkeyuibx.exe you go to some sort of malware at the link shown in the picture below

And it looks like this:

CAREFUL:

The file downloaded from the link in Juha's post #1 has malware. I just tried it.

I removed the link.

Both Jotti and MetaScan find nothing, maybe a false positive if what's in the screenshot is MSE detecting it, however I'll trust login123 Antivirus being that you provided screenshots!

Yes, Virustotal shows 3 hits, Juha's link, but Avast found nothing either.

Likely Juha didn't know it or was not affected.

But when i ran it, it spontaneously opened internet explorer (I was using Firefox) and went to that page.

Had to kill IE using Process Explorer.

Apparently no harm done here.

edit:

I think ?? that page is just one of these phony sites saying you have a virus.

Also, that locked page doesn't happen when you navigate manually to the page using firefox.

Uh, wait are you blaming an VERY OBVIOUS pop-up scam/page unfairly on a softpedia download?

I mean I don't trust softpedia further than I can throw their website (not very as it has no corporeal form) but it maybe hasty to assume malevolence. Plus a program that reads windows keys is likely to set off at least a couple of PuP alarms especially if it's a no-install as one would assume a zip file would contain. It (the key reader) could be itself bundled into a malicious package, but is unlikely to be, itself, hiding badness nor be dangerous.

Plus a program that reads windows keys is likely to set off at least a couple of PuP alarms...

That's what I was thinking too I'd image several anti-malware and anti-virus tools to possibly trigger upon running it, however the screenshot login123 posted was enough to realize it was much more.

Who knows maybe that program just opens the website link in IE, but doesn't actually plant malware on the system. Since Panda Free Antivirus didn't detect anything on my system I made sure to overwrite the file with 7 secure passes for the overkill effect.

"Uh, wait are you blaming an VERY OBVIOUS pop-up scam/page unfairly on a softpedia download?"

Nope. :)

Just saying what happened here. No blame, don't know whodunit, nor how, just what.

It might not be malware.

But ... seems like if it locks your browser onto a page about a virus you don't have and won't let you close it, that's malware.

Every time I click pkeyuibx.exe (from softpedia, zipped) it opens IE and sends me to:

hxxp://sh.st/plk0m.

Each time the page looks a bit different, I can't attach the picture this time, maybe over my attachment limit.

But again this time i can't navigate away from the page, must shut down IE using Process Explorer.

Same as explained in my first 2 posts.

Remember, Avast didn't trigger. It does for a great many keyfinders, but not this one. So whatever is happening is happening after I get to the page...but the page doesn't trigger Avast either.

Edit: Deleted some attachments to make room, below are a couple of other pages I was sent to, unable to leave them.

Hey - everyone - can we return to the topic - Why does speccy sometime show the wrong product key for the MS OS? As I wrote, I like speccy and would like to know why this problem exists, given that Belarc and JellyBean don't have any problems.

Quite right, glnz.

The original issue is important, and I'm sure the developers will see this and work toward a fix.

But also it is important to prevent clicking a link which might lock up someones browser.

That is done now, so I shall retire from the topic for now.