Preparing to install new hard drive ...

A friend's computer had malware infestation. After 30 hours of work, using many tools, it still has problems. No joy - after using AVG, Avast, BitDefender, Spyware Doctor, CCleaner, etc.... Giving up now...

Got a new hard drive.

Major remaining problem is, we need to retrieve the list of programs, versions, and license keys, before removing the old hard drive.

Belarc Advisor installer refuses to install... giving error messages, such as:

"... BALicense.txt could not be opened."

Same installer runs fine on another computer as a test.

I would like to run Belarc Advisor from a USB Flash Drive, but cannot find any way to set that up. It's not documented how to install it on a flash drive. Using advisor.exe it only will install on the system drive, not on any other drive, there are no options. (tried copying files from hard drive to flash drive but advisor will not run from flash drive.)

What are the alternatives?

Can we get the license keys off the old drive after installing the new drive and Windows XP?

What alternatives are there (free ones) besides Belarc Advisor that will give a report on the programs and license keys?

 

Try SIW and look under Software>Licenses. I'm not sure the list will be complete.

Magic Jelly Bean will give you the Microsoft ones.

 

Seems like SIW may only show license keys if you buy the pro version at $69?

 

It looks like you are correct.

 

According to the website, looks like SIW may only show license keys if you buy the pro version at $69?

But if you run the free version, it does seem to work, shows license keys for apps.

Thanks!

I'll gladly donate $5 per machine, but $69 is excessive for my needs.

 

Well, the HTML report does NOT show license keys, but the copy report result to clipboard does.

BTW, the SIW reports are far more thorough and complete than the Belarc ones, but Belarc is ok, if it would work.

Now, we are ready to pull the hard drive out and install the fresh new one!