How To Get Old Windows Product Key

If you're planning on doing a reinstall of Windows but tin can't find your product key, you're in luck considering it'due south stored in the Windows Registry. It'southward just not like shooting fish in a barrel to notice, and it's impossible to read without some help. Luckily, we're here to help.

Where Windows Hides the Product Key

As you tin see in the screenshot higher up, the product ID is stored in the registry merely is in a binary format that can't exist read by humans unless you are some sort of Cylon. You lot aren't, are you?

RELATED: Beginner Geek: How to Reinstall Windows on Your Computer

We're not actually sure why Microsoft went to great lengths to make it difficult to meet the production keys for their software, particularly since they are stored right in there in the registry and can exist read past software, if non past humans. We tin can only presume that they don't want anybody to re-use a key from an onetime computer.

The bang-up thing is that you tin even recover a primal, even from a reckoner that won't boot anymore. All you need is access to the disk drive from a working computer. Keep reading for more.

3 Places You Might Notice the Central

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The fundamental you need volition be in one of three places:

• Stored in software on your PC: When you (or your PC manufacturer) installs Windows, Windows stores its product cardinal in the registry. You tin can extract this product key, and–often–enter it when reinstalling Windows on your PC. Crucially, y'all'll demand to take hold of it from your operating organisation before you begin reinstalling Windows or it could be deleted if you format your hard drive.
• Printed on a sticker: Some PCs use a engineering called "System Locked Pre-installation," or SLP. If your PC uses this, the product cardinal on your PC–the one stored in the registry, and the one key-viewer applications display–will be different from the actual primal your PC needs. The bodily key is on a certificate of authenticity (COA) sticker on your PC or its power supply. The ane in the registry and primal-viewer application is a red herring. This system was common for Windows 7 PCs.
• Embedded in your PC's UEFI firmware: Many newer PCs that come with Windows viii or ten utilize a new method. The key for the version of Windows the PC comes with is stored in the computer's UEFI firmware or BIOS. You don't even need to know it–assuming you're installing the same edition of Windows the PC came with, it should automatically activate and work without you needing to enter a key. It'll all happen automatically.

Be sure to apply the same version and edition of Windows the estimator came with. In other words, if it came with Windows vii Home Premium, you tin can't install Windows seven Professional.

If the Primal Is Stored in Your PC's Hardware

Let's beginning with the simplest situation. On newer Windows viii, 10, and 11 computers, the key isn't stored in software where it can exist wiped, or on a sticker where it could be smudged off or removed. No one can glance at your computer's sticker to steal its product key. Instead, the cardinal is stored in the computer's UEFI firmware or BIOS by the manufacturer.

You don't accept to do anything special if you have this. You should merely exist able to reinstall the same edition of Windows the PC came with and it should just work without even asking you for a key. (Withal, it may be best to detect the product key using ane of the below methods and write it down earlier reinstalling Windows — simply in case.)

If y'all want to find the UEFI-embedded primal and write it downward, you lot can exercise so quite simply. Simply open the Kickoff menu, type "powershell" into the search bar, and run the Powershell application that comes up.

Then, enter the post-obit command and printing Enter:

(Get-WmiObject -query 'select * from SoftwareLicensingService').OA3xOriginalProductKey

Y'all should be rewarded with your embedded license primal. Write it down and store information technology in a safe place.

Read the Central From the Certificate of Actuality Sticker

If y'all have a Windows 7-era PC, there's a good chance the PC's key is a unmarried key the manufacturer uses for all their PCs. Cheers to "Organization Locked Pre-installation," you're not allowed to apply that central to install Windows. If you try, you'll become fault messages nigh the key being invalid.

To check, you'll need to look for a document of authenticity sticker on your computer. The COA sticker verifies that the computer came with an authentic copy of Windows, and that sticker has a product key printed on it. You lot'll need that production key to reinstall Windows — and, if the manufacturer used Organization Locked Pre-installation, that key is dissimilar from the ane your PC came with in software.

Examine your computer to observe the key. On a laptop, information technology may be on the lesser of the laptop. If your laptop has a removable bombardment, it may be nether the battery. If there's some sort of compartment you can open, information technology might exist in there. It may even be stuck to the laptop's charger brick. If information technology'southward a desktop, look on the side of the desktop's case. If it's non there, bank check the elevation, dorsum, bottom, and anywhere else it might exist.

If the primal has rubbed off of the sticker, there'due south not much you tin can do. You can try contacting your computer's manufacturer and explaining what happened, only nosotros tin can't guarantee they'll help. Microsoft would e'er be happy to sell you another key, though!

Use NirSoft'due south ProduKey to Recover Product Keys (Even if Yous Tin't Boot the PC)

Annotation: Nirsoft's ProduKey will almost definitely set up off your antivirus considering of what it does and how it works. ShowKeyPlus is an option if you lot desire a solution that works for Windows 10 and Windows eleven thatwon'tset off your antivirus.

The easiest way to get access to your product key is with a third-political party utility, and there'south nobody better at those than NirSoft. Their utilities are e'er crapware-gratuitous, and are always really useful. The only event with this particular utility is that some antivirus will detect it as a fake positive, because some malware might try to steal your product key.

Note: NirSoft's utility won't always work for OEM computers, depending on how they decided to activate the licenses. If your OEM installed your reckoner and used a single central for all their PCs, this won't work. It also doesn't work for Office 2013 and later versions of Microsoft Office.

All you have to exercise is download ProduKey, unzip it, and so run it to immediately meet all of your product keys. It's as simple as that.

If you lot want to recover a cardinal from a dead computer, you can claw upwards the difficult drive to a working PC, and then run ProduKey and use File > Select Source to signal to the external Windows directory. You tin then take hold of the keys from that computer hands.

You can as well use a Linux live CD to pull the Windows directory off the other computer and onto a thumb bulldoze, or just catch the registry files if y'all prefer. If you need aid, we've got a guide to pulling information off a dead estimator.

RELATED: How to Recover Files From a Expressionless Computer

Apply ShowKeyPlus to Recover Lost Keys

Nirsoft's program works — simply it might tigger a warning in your antivirus, or even your browser. If y'all don't want to bargain with that, ShowKeyPlus is a good alternative. ShowKeyPlus is available directly from the Microsoft Store for Windows 10 and Windows xi.

RELATED: How to Find Your Windows 11 Product Key

Open up upwardly the Microsoft Shop, find ShowKeyPlus, then click the "Install" button and await while it downloads and installs. It shouldn't take very long; the program is pretty minor.

Click "Open up" after it has downloaded, and the product keys on your organisation will be displayed.

It is important to note that there might exist both an installed key and an OEM key. OEM, or Original Equipment Manufacturer, keys are tied to the hardware of the device. If you're using a prebuilt desktop PC or a laptop, the OEM key and the installed key will be the same unless you separately purchased a dissimilar Windows license.

If y'all did buy and install a carve up Windows license for a prebuilt or laptop (or for a estimator you lot congenital yourself) brand sure you grab the installed key, not the OEM primal. OEM keys are field of study to more restrictions than retail keys, and so you don't desire to accidentally use the incorrect one.

Discover the Windows Primal Without Any Software (Advanced Users Only)

Bold you tin kick your computer without any problems, you can hands create a simple VBscript that will read the value out of the registry and and then interpret information technology into the format that you demand for reinstalling. We're not sure where this script came from, but reader raphoenix posted it on our forum a long time agone, so nosotros're sharing it hither for you lot.

Copy and paste the following into a Notepad window:

Set WshShell = CreateObject("WScript.Shell") MsgBox ConvertToKey(WshShell.RegRead("HKLMSOFTWAREMicrosoftWindows NTCurrentVersionDigitalProductId"))  Function ConvertToKey(Fundamental) Const KeyOffset = 52 i = 28 Chars = "BCDFGHJKMPQRTVWXY2346789" Do Cur = 0 x = xiv Exercise Cur = Cur * 256 Cur = Cardinal(x + KeyOffset) + Cur Primal(x + KeyOffset) = (Cur  24) And 255 Cur = Cur Mod 24 x = x -i Loop While ten >= 0 i = i -1 KeyOutput = Mid(Chars, Cur + 1, i) & KeyOutput If (((29 - i) Mod half dozen) = 0) And (i <> -1) Then i = i -1 KeyOutput = "-" & KeyOutput End If Loop While i >= 0 ConvertToKey = KeyOutput End Role

Yous'll need to use File -> Save As, change the "Save every bit blazon" to "All Files" and then proper name it productkey.vbs or something similar catastrophe with the vbs extension. We'd recommend saving to the desktop for piece of cake access.

Once yous've saved it, y'all tin just double-click and the popup window volition show you your product central.

Tip: If you employ CTRL+C when the popup window is active, it will copy the contents of the window to the clipboard, and and then you tin can paste it into Notepad or somewhere else.

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The product key system is complicated to understand because Microsoft doesn't really want typical Windows users to reinstall Windows on their PCs. Instead, they'd rather you use your computer manufacturer'southward recovery media. Only the recovery media is full of the bloatware you don't want on your PC — that'south why so many geeks often opt to reinstall Windows on their new PCs.

Source: https://www.howtogeek.com/206329/how-to-find-your-lost-windows-or-office-product-keys/

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