method must have a return type

[michaeldebruin]

Hello all,

I am trying to get a program which can retrieve the serial key of Windows from the Registry. I've found the source code on this website, but I can't seem to get it working.
This is the source code as I have it right now.

//first byte offset
        const int start = 52;
        //last byte offset
        const int end = start + 15;
        //decoded key length
        const int length = 29;
        //decoded key in byte form
        const int decoded = 15;
 
        public static DecodeKeyByteArray(byte id)
        {
 
            //char[] for holding the decoded product key
            var decodedKey = new char[length];
 
            //List<byte> to hold the key bytes
            var keyHex = new List<byte>();
 
            //list to hold possible alpha-numeric characters
            //that may be in the product key
            var charsInKey = new List<char>()
                    {
                        'B', 'C', 'D', 'F', 'G', 'H', 
                        'J', 'K', 'M', 'P', 'Q', 'R', 
                        'T', 'V', 'W', 'X', 'Y', '2', 
                        '3', '4', '6', '7', '8', '9'
                    };
 
            //add all bytes to our list
            for (var i = start; i <= end; i++)
            {
                keyHex.Add(id[i]);
            }
            //now the decoding starts
            for (var i = length - 1; i >= 0; i--)
 
                switch ((i + 1) % 6)
                {
                    //if the calculation is 0 (zero) then add the seperator
                    case 0:
                        decodedKey[i] = '-';
                        break;
                    default:
                        var idx = 0;
 
                        for (var j = decoded - 1; j >= 0; j--)
                        {
                            var @value = (idx << 8) | keyHex[j];
                            keyHex[j] = (byte)(@value / 24);
                            idx = @value % 24;
                            decodedKey[i] = charsInKey[idx];
                        }
                        break;
                }
            return new string(decodedKey);
        }
 
 
        private void btnGetSerialKey_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {
 
            byte[] id = null;
            var regKey = Registry.LocalMachine.OpenSubKey("SOFTWARE\\Microsoft\\Windows NT\\CurrentVersion");
 
            if (regKey != null) id = regKey.GetValue("DigitalProductId") as byte[];
 
            btnGetSerialKey.Text = DecodeKeyByteArray(id);
 
        }

Visual Studio keep saying that I must have a return method, but since I have a return method. I just don't know why it is going wrong.

Thanks in advance for the help.

[r035198x]

if the method

 public static DecodeKeyByteArray(byte id)

returns a string then you must declare it as

public static string DecodeKeyByteArray(byte id)