But I own the game!

Last night I decided to install Battlefield 2 in preparation for the LAN party. I haven't played it since before Katrina and since then the computer died so I needed to get it back on the computer. I dug around for the CDs and realized the instruction manual wasn't in the box. Now, you might think I wouldn't need the manual since I already know how to play the game. However, the manual contains the CD key. I searched and searched and searched but couldn't find it. In desperation I did a Google search to find if there was some way to get a new key. I found a lot of hacks and offers to trade for keys, but nothing like what I was looking for. Then I saw one post that mentioned that the CD key is stored in the Windows registry. I had a bunch of files I saved off the old hard drive, and I knew one directory was nothing but backup registry files. Maybe I could did through the file and find it? Opening it in wordpad wasn't a large help but I found three things that looked like they might be keys, but I wasn't sure. Then I found a freeware utility using Google that reads registry files. Using that I found the key, which was indeed one of the things I found in Wordpad. An hour later I was online playing the new version of Wake Island. I love being a techie.