How to find out your Windows XP/7/8/2012 media type (OEM, Retail, VL)

For Windows XP and 7

If you ever wondered how to find out what kind of media your operating system is you can refer to the following registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProductId

In order to determine the media type we need to identify the "Channel ID" portion of the product key - which is the second group of numbers from the left.

007 - VLK MAK
033 - VLK MAK
049 - VLK MAK
050 - Technet Plus Enterprise MAK
065 - Technet/MSDN/Bizspark Windows 7 Ultimate
066 - Technet/MSDN/Bizspark Windows 7 Ultimate
067 - Technet/MSDN/Bizspark Windows 7 Ultimate
074 - Retail Windows 7 Ultimate
112 - Retail Windows 7 Home Premium
177 - Retail Windows 7 Professional
220 - Technet/MSDN/Bizspark Windows 7 Professional
230 - Technet/MSDN/Bizspark Windows 7 Home Premium
231 - Technet/MSDN/Bizspark Windows 7 Home Premium
292 - Retail Windows 7 Ultimate
293 - Retail Windows 7 Ultimate
339 - Retail Windows 7 Home Basic
838 - Technet/MSDN/Bizspark Windows 7 Professional
896 - Retail Windows 7 Home Basic N
929 - Retail Windows 7 Home Basic E
956 - Retail Windows 7 Ultimate

000 : Other (includes some retail, upgrade and evaluation versions) (includes (some?) MSDNAA discs)
006 : MS or Partner promotions
007 : FIXME : Retail
009 : Not for resale - bundle
011 : Upgrade (XP Home?)
013 : Upgrade (XP Pro)
071 : FIXME : Unknown.
083 : Windows Genuine Advantage
OEM : OEM (This does not specify royalty or normal OEM)
270 : Volume License
296 : MSDN
308/347 : Microsoft Action Pack subscription
335 : Retail
640 through 652 : Volume License (usually generated via 270 CID in setupp.ini)
699 : Volume Windows XP Tablet Edition
770 : Retail

dism /online /set-edition:ServerDatacenter/productkey:DWH3B-NPP7T-WGDRJ-QP9HT-236PW

For Windows 7/8/2012

If you have the ISO available you can mount the file and look within the EI.cfg file in D:\Sources - you will then see something like the following:

[Channel]
volume

[VL]
1

If you do not have the original ISO available you can run the following powershell cmdlet:

slmgr.vbs /dli

And check the "CHANNEL" output.

If it is equal to VLK_MAC or VLK_KMS you are using a VL key.