Serial Key Devices

[DanSK 0]

If anyone can help with this rather esoteric question many kudos as even the manufacturers of some of these serial key devices can't answer this. But in w2k in control panel > accessability options there are configurations under the General tab to enable serial key devices. Under the check box to enable these there is then Adminstrative options to Apply All Settings to Logon Desktop and Apply All Settings to Defaults for New Users. The problem is that when w2k reboots the serial key devices stop working but as soon as you go back into CP they start again. Strange but true - there really are lost spirits running around in there somewhere. But now to add to the story I also have autologon configured so all clients boot and logon automatically to the network. This is accomplished the the reg with the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon key. In there you'll find the userinit key with path C:\WinNT\System32\userinit.exe,, skeys /I for serial keys. Now with this said (at last) would anyone know what the configuration switches for skeys are and why I am loosing the serial key device on reboot?

 

Many thanks in advance for any feedback on this.

[ScinteX 0]

Hi,

 

I'll be hoenst I haven't clue but I did do a little research for you.

 

When enabling or disabling Serial Keys its interesting to see what happens in the Registry.

 

It appears that 2 areas are changed.

 

1- Enabling or disabling of the "SerialKeys" service. You could try going into Services (type Services.msc in a Run command) and making sure that the service is set to Automatic and that it's started. It might be that for whatever reason this service is on Manual and thus not starting up properly.

It seems that when you tick the box for serialkeys this service is changed.

 

2-After the service is configured, Windows then updates your Hardware Profile. I'm not sure about this but just maybe something to do with your auto logon is missing something in the hardware profiles. FYI the bit in the Registry that Serial Keys looks starts at:

HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\IDConfig\

 

One diagnostic-type-thing you can do is to get you serial keys working, then export the whole registry.

Reboot, then export the whole registry again.

 

Get a copy of the Windiff program:

 

http://www.grigsoft.com/download-windiff.htm

 

Compare both registry export files and play spot the difference. From there, you can either work out yourself as to what is happening or send the results to the vendor with a nice note of "these things change, tell us why".

 

Obviously some differences might be legit- however I'm sure you can work out which ones are the rogue ones with any luck.

 

All the best

 

S

[DanSK 0]

Hi ScinteX,

 

You gave me a lot to go on for sure! One thing that I came across quite accidentally was a serial key device driver written for LC Technologies as a replacement for MS skeys. It can be run in user mode and has many advantages over MS skeys.exe. I havent' had an opportunity to try it yet but perhaps it can be of help to others facing this same problem. Download it at http://www.lctinc.com/skeys/index.htm

 

Cheers,

 

Dan