I am not too familiar with the software licensing and how this all works, but I have a question regarding Windows 7 and partially Office - generally Microsoft products. I have been asked to assist our IT guy who wants to collect all the product IDs for Windows 7 and Office.

I haven't been given much details how to go about it and how to collect it. After a bit of research I have decided to use a freeware that pulls the software licenses out of the registry. I thought that was the easiest and would provide the most accurate product IDs. I've used Belrac Avisor to obtain all the informations.

It turns out that about 25 machines use the same product key. I have asked if the company has bought a commercial license or something but there isn't anyone available at the moment who could answer my question. I have told the IT guy that there are 25 machines using the same product key and asked if that is alright. He told me to go around and write the product keys from the sticker(label) on each machine. I am just not quite sure if that's the right approach specially that the numbers do not match....

So, now I see that the numbers aren't matching and my question is in terms of software licensing which is the VALID and correct product key to provide if ever questioned about software license? Is it the number on the sticker or is it the number stored in the registry?