Check Your Windows Product Key

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Have you lost your Windows Product Key? This 25 character key is required any time you want to reinstall Windows or install your old copy of Windows on a new computer. You'll need it if you make any drastic changes to your hardware as well. Unfortunately, it's incredibly easy to lose the sticker that contains the Product Key. That's where some free software comes in. See Step 1 below to learn how to retrieve your Product Key for Windows, even if your computer isn't working.

Steps

Using a Working Computer

  1. Download a key retrieval program. There are a variety of freeware programs that can quickly retrieve your Windows Product Key with very little hassle or technical know-how. The most popular programs are ProduKey and KeyFinder.
    • Both of these programs are available for free. If you are downloading KeyFinder, the free version will work just fine for retrieving your Windows Product Key.
    • Make sure to download the programs directly from the developers. This will ensure that you don't accidentally download one packaged with lots of malware or viruses. ProduKey is made by NirSoft, and KeyFinder is made by Magical Jelly Bean.
    • If your antivirus program reports that the KeyFinder is malicious, double-check that you downloaded it from the official website, and then proceed with the installation.
  2. Start the key retrieval program. When you run the program for the first time, you will see a list of supported programs that a key can be retrieved from. Find your copy of Windows in the list of programs.
    • You can use these key retrieval programs to find your Microsoft Office key as well.
  3. Note the key. When you select the program, you will see the key listed as the "Product Key" or "CD Key" entry. Windows product keys are 25-character keys, separated into five groups of five characters each.[1]

Retrieving a Crashed Computer's Key

  1. Make a Linux live boot disk. If your computer has crashed and isn't booting, you can use a Linux live boot disk to attempt to pull the files you need off of your malfunctioning hard drive. You'll need a thumb drive with at least 1 GB of space as well as a second computer to create the disk on and retrieve the key with. Creating the Linux live boot disk will erase any data on your thumb drive.
    • Download UNetbootin. This utility will allow you to quickly create a bootable drive containing Ubuntu Live. UNetbootin is available for free from Sourceforge.
    • Run UNetbootin. Select "Ubuntu" from the "Select Distribution", and the latest Live version for the "Select Version" menu. If you have a 64-bit machine, select the x64 version.
    • Select "USB Drive" from the "Type" menu, and then select your USB flash drive's letter from the "Drive" menu. Click OK to start the process.
    • Wait for the disk to be created. UNetbootin will download the Ubuntu files and then copy everything to disk, making it bootable in the process. This process may take some time, especially if you have a slow internet connection.
  2. Boot the malfunctioning computer. Insert the newly-created USB boot disk into the malfunctioning computer and set it to boot from the USB drive. You can change the boot order in the BIOS menu. See Set-Your-Computer-to-Boot-from-USB-Flash-Drive for details on changing to boot order so that the computer boots from the thumb drive instead of the hard drive.
  3. Load the live desktop. When the computer boots from the flash drive, you will see the UNetbootin menu. Select "Default" from the boot options menu and wait for the Ubuntu desktop to load.
  4. Find and copy the key information. Once you have booted into Ubuntu, open the file browser and navigate to C:\Windows\System32\. Find the config folder and copy it to the USB drive. This folder is typically no larger than 300 MB.
    • When you copy the config folder to the USB drive, recreate the original folder structure, without the Windows folder. For example, if your USB drive is E:, create the folders E:\Windows\System32\ and copy the config folder into that.
  5. Insert the USB drive back in the working computer. Shut down the broken computer and move the USB drive back to the working computer. Download ProduKey. Right-click on ProduKey application icon and select "Run as Administrator" (see previous section).
  6. Find the key. On the ProduKey main screen, click File → Select Source. Select "Load the product keys from external Windows directory", and then select the Windows folder you created on the USB drive. Your Windows Product Key will then be listed on the ProduKey main screen.
    • The Windows Product key is 25 characters, separated into five groups of five characters each.[2]

Related Articles

Sources and Citations

  1. ↑ http://lifehacker.com/138102/reveal-product-keys-and-ids-with-produkey
  2. ↑ http://www.howtogeek.com/64600/how-to-recover-windows-and-software-keys-from-a-broken-computer/
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