Find A Lost Windows or Ms Office Product Key
You wish to reinstall your Windows and unfortunately, you couldn’t find the product key. Do not worry! Thankfully, it will be stored in the Windows registry. But it’s not that easy to find where it is. Moreover, it’s almost impossible to read without any help. The product ID will have to be decoded since it will be found in binary format. And obviously, humans can’t read the binary codes directly unless we are robots.
Microsoft made it difficult to see the product keys for their software. Because they are stored in the registry and can be read in the software, if not by humans. One of the great things is that the product key can be recovered from a computer that won’t boot anymore. It just needs access to the disk drive from a working computer.
Can you guess where can the product key be found? Don’t worry if your answer is no. Here are we to let you know the places where the product key can be found. Yes! There are three places for the key.
- Software on your computer: When you install Windows or the PC manufacturer does this installation, the product key is stored in the registry of the Windows. You can extract and often enter the product key while reinstalling Windows on your PC. Make sure to extract the product key from your operating system before you begin to reinstall the Windows. Otherwise, the product key could be deleted if you format the hard drive.
- Printed on a sticker: System Locked Pre-installation or SLP is a technology which is being used on some PCs. If your PC uses this SLP, the product key on your PC will be different from the original product key which your PC needs. The product key on your PC will be the one store in the registry and key-viewer applications display and these are red herring. The original key is on a Certificate Of Authenticity (COA) sticker on your PC or its power supply.
- Embedded in your PC’s UEFI firmware: The product key for the versions of the Windows with which it comes with is stored in the computer’s UEFI firmware or BIOS. Even there is no need to know it assuming that you are installing the same edition of Windows with which the PC came with. It should activate automatically and work without you needing to enter a key.
Make sure of the Windows and the edition of the PC with which it came with. Because you cannot install a new version on your PC.
1. The product key is in your PC’s Hardware:
On the Windows 8 and 10 systems, the key is stored neither in the software nor on a sticker where they can be erased or removed. The product key cannot be stolen or no one can even see the sticker. This is all because the manufacturer stores the key in the computer’s UEFI firmware. Only you need to reinstall the edition of the Windows with which the PC came with. This should work automatically without taking your help to even press a key.
You can even find the UEFI embedded key and store in a safe place. For this, you need to open the “Start menu”, type “Powershell” and run the Powershell application that appears on the top.
When the Powershell application opens, type the following command and press enter:
“(Get-WmiObject -query ‘select * from SoftwareLicensingService’).OA3xOriginalProductKey”
After this, you will get your embedded license key that you can note down and store in a safe place.
2. The key from COA sticker:
If you have a Windows 7 era PC, chances are there that the key is single which the manufacturer uses for all PCs. That key cannot be used to install Windows, thanks to “System Locked Pre-installation”. If you try further, you will get an error message saying the key is invalid.
To check this, find a Certificate Of Authenticity on your PC. This COA sticker verifies that the computer came with an authentic copy of Windows. That sticker has a product key printed on it. This product key will be useful to reinstall the Windows. If the manufacturer has used an SLP, then that key is different from the windows with which it came with.
You can find this sticker at the bottom of the laptop. Or it can even be found under the battery if it is a removable one. And in the case of a desktop, it can be seen at the side of the desktop case. If not, it can be available at the top, bottom, back or anywhere of it.
If it happened that the sticker with the product key at the bottom of your laptop has been erased or rubbed off, then you can contact your computer’s manufacturer. There are less chance that the manufacturer would help you. They would rather suggest for a new product key.
These are some of the ways you can get back your lost product key of the Windows or Ms.Office. Hope, you will find this article useful in a case if you forget the product key.
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