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Key Checker

Overview​

  • How to use it? Instructions can be found here.
  • The Key Checker option in PKeyMaster can validate Microsoft product keys (Windows, Office, Visual Studio, etc.) from the Windows 95 era to the latest releases.
  • By validation, we mean accurately determining the exact product a key belongs to, as well as its specific details.
  • This basic validation is done offline; however, the program includes additional options that you can enable to check further details:
  • You can use a key file to check multiple keys in a batch operation. The logging option will generate detailed CSV and TXT sheets for easy review.

How does it work?​

When you enter a key into PKeyMaster to check its details, the tool categorizes the key format and checking method into two main types:

  1. Pre-Windows 98 keys (Mod7 Algorithm)
  2. Windows 98 and later 5x5 keys (PKey980, PKey986, PKey2005, and PKey2009 algorithms)

1. Pre-Windows 98 keys​

Check the details here.

2. Windows 98 and later keys​

This method covers four algorithms:

  • PKey980 Algorithm (BINK1998): Used in Windows 98, Windows XP, Office 2000, Office XP, etc.
  • PKey986 Algorithm (BINK2002): Used in Server 2003, Office 2003, Office 2007, etc.
  • PKey2005 Algorithm: Used in Windows Vista, Windows 7, Office 2010, etc.
  • PKey2009 Algorithm: Used in Windows 8, Office 2013, and all newer products.

Key format: XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX
Allowed characters: BCDFGHJKMPQRTVWXY2346789
The PKey2009 algorithm mandatorily includes the letter N, which is not present in previous algorithms.

In the BINK 1998/2002 era, Microsoft typically stored BINK data in the pidgen.dll file for Windows, and the MSO.DLL file for Office. Other products used their own specific files.

The problem with this approach was the frequent need to edit binary files to update key ranges and BINK data for various products, which was messy and difficult to manage. So, starting with Windows Vista beta build 5048, Microsoft introduced pidgenx.dll and utilized a signed file named pkeyconfig.xml (later renamed to pkeyconfig.xrm-ms in build 5259) to store key ranges and other necessary data. This approach made it much easier to maintain the information required to validate keys.

In the first two builds (5048, 5071), pkeyconfig.xml had a different structure, but from build 5098 onwards, they adopted a more robust format that is still used today. In those early builds, they used the PKey986 algorithm in pkeyconfig.xml because the PKey2005 algorithm had not yet been developed.

Key validation methods​

Windows Vista, Office 2010, and later products​

It is straightforward: we can simply use the product's pkeyconfig.xrm-ms file alongside pidgenx.dll to output the Digital Product ID in version 2, 3, or 4 formats, which can be easily parsed.

Pre-Vista products​

We can validate Pre-Vista product keys using one of three methods.

[1] The pidgen.dll method​

One approach is to gather every unique pidgen.dll from pre-Vista builds and test a key against all of them until a match is found.
However, this method has a few issues. First, Office and some other products didn't use pidgen.dll; they used different files and structures, making it tedious to collect them all. Second, pidgen.dll often contains blocked key ranges in various builds, preventing us from viewing the details of those keys.
We can solve these issues by collecting all the BINK ID data and injecting it into a single pidgen.dll file using Resource Hacker. To bypass the blocked key ranges, we can utilize a pidgen.dll from a beta build that doesn't have these restrictions. You can learn more about how to do that here.

[2] ECC math and key validation​

The methods used to generate BINK1998/2002 keys were known even during the Windows XP era, with tools shared on the AntiWPA Forum. More recently, these methods have been streamlined in UMSKT. Product ID calculation for BINK1998 is relatively simple and can be verified in the leaked source code for Windows XP. The source code for the BINK2002 pidgen is not publicly available, and calculating its Product ID is more complicated, requiring Elliptic-Curve Cryptography (ECC) math.

[3] The pidgenx.dll method​

As mentioned earlier, pidgenx.dll can validate PKey980/986 keys, but the problem is that Microsoft never created pkeyconfig files for pre-Vista products.
To resolve this, we can patch pidgenx.dll to ignore the pkeyconfig signature and manually create a pkeyconfig.xrm-ms file for pre-Vista products using BINK ID data, as demonstrated by WitherOrNot here. A pkeyconfig.xrm-ms containing all known BINK IDs can be found here. Although we need to pad the pkeyconfig file with some random, unofficial data to satisfy the requirements of pidgenx.dll, we can filter out this dummy data in the final result, displaying only accurate and official information.

Best method?​

Method 1 is somewhat slow because it requires two versions of pidgen.dll - one for BINK1998 and one for BINK2002. Furthermore, we must query each DLL twice (once to check if it is an OEM key and once for Non-OEM), leading to a total of up to 4 attempts if an OEM key belongs to BINK2002. Another bottleneck is that the pidgen.dll for BINK1998 is 32-bit only, and loading it from a 64-bit PowerShell process introduces further delays. While a query time of 2-3 seconds isn't terrible, the modern pidgenx.dll is much faster.

Method 2 requires maintaining a large codebase and is relatively slow (around 500 ms) compared to pidgenx.dll (around 50 ms).

In conclusion, the pidgenx.dll method is the best and fastest approach for key validation.

How does key validation work with PidGenX.dll?​

Check the details here.

Sample check in PKeyMaster​

Windows XP

Checking Key: XCYBK-2B3KV-G8T8F-WXJM7-WCTYT

Product Key       : XCYBK-2B3KV-G8T8F-WXJM7-WCTYT
Profile           : Pre-Vista (Windows 98 to XP - Office 2000 to 2007 - etc)
Result            : Specified key is valid
Product ID        : 00000-642-7344064-23997
Extended PID      : 00000-00046-642-734406-00-1033-26200.0000-1612026
Algorithm ID      : msft:rm/algorithm/pkey/980
Group ID          : 46 (0x2E)
Key ID            : 642734406 (0x264F5946)
Channel ID        : 642
Sequence          : 734406
Bink              : Bink1998
Hash              : 75917850
Signature         : 34865666231815074
License Type      : 0
Upgrade Key       : No
Product Match     : Windows XP For Legacy PCs (VLK)
Product Match     : Windows XP Professional (VLK) (RTM) (SP1) (SP2) (SP3)
Query Time        : 0.358 s

Windows 10

Checking Key: VK7JG-NPHTM-C97JM-9MPGT-3V66T

Product Key       : VK7JG-NPHTM-C97JM-9MPGT-3V66T
Profile           : 28000 - Windows 11 24H2-25H2-26H2 - Server 2025 - Azure Local 24H2
Result            : Specified key is valid
Product ID        : 00330-80000-00000-AA018
Extended PID      : 00000-03308-000-000000-00-1033-26200.0000-1712026
Installation ID   : 004727610080850210881551831241585864353284373219179278411780885
ActConfig ID      : msft2009:4de7cb65-cdf1-4de9-8ae8-e3cce27b9f2c&AAAAAHYGUKX33BIDnw==
Activation ID     : 4de7cb65-cdf1-4de9-8ae8-e3cce27b9f2c
Description       : Win 10 RTM Professional Retail
Edition           : Professional
Part number       : [TH]X19-98841
Label ID          : 03308-000-000-000
Key Type          : Retail
EULA              : Retail
Algorithm ID      : msft:rm/algorithm/pkey/2009
Group ID          : 3308 (0xCEC)
Key ID            : 0 (0x0)
License Type      : 0
Upgrade Key       : No
PKey2009 Security : 5594737606063274
PKey2009 Extra    : 0
Query Time        : 0.144 s

Feedback / Troubleshooting​