All you need is access to the disk drive from a working computer. The great thing is that you can even recover a key, even from a computer that won’t boot anymore. We can only assume that they don’t want anybody to re-use a key from an old computer.
We’re not really sure why Microsoft went to great lengths to make it difficult to see the product keys for their software, especially since they are stored right in there in the registry and can be read by software, if not by humans. RELATED: Beginner Geek: How to Reinstall Windows on Your Computer Note that it does this (install "wrong" edition) even if it later in the process shows that Microsoft will find and use the license for the other edition without logging in on an MS account, it does it by looking up various hardware serial numbers but this happens much later in the install process and only works if you've forced it to the right edition.As you can see in the screenshot above, the product ID is stored in the registry but is in a binary format that can’t be read by humans unless you are some sort of Cylon. Windows install bypass the Edition selection when it finds that key in BIOS storage, the workaround for this is to edit one of the file on the install media which forces it to always ask. OTOH this stored BIOS license key can be a problem if you're trying to do a clean install of a DIFFERENT edition of Windows (like Pro while the machine came with Home). If it does have the stored key it goes up to 100%.
So you might as well use the most well-known one, Magical Jelly Bean KeyFinder.Īnd in my experience Microsoft will 99 times out of 100 automatically detect and apply the correct key (as long as you select the right Windows Edition) even when doing clean installs on existing hardware even if you don't use a MS account for login and it doesn't have a BIOS stored license key. So really, only the first method should ever be used, there are other programs and tools that will work but there's no reliable methods that doesn't use tools! If there's no Windows OEM key in the BIOS it will be empty and if you've reinstalled using a different key it will give you the wrong key! It is useful as a way to access the key that comes with the hardware on most newer OEM machines but is no substitute for actually checking what license key Windows actually use.Īnd the third method usually? sometimes? returns a "digital key" that's only valid for the specific install - there's no real use for this since it can't be used even on the same hardware after a reinstall! The OA3xOriginalProductKey method returns the Windows OEM license key stored in the BIOS for pre-installed machines where they used that method to store it - most OEMs do this because this is the only way where they DON'T need to physically affix a sticker with the key on the machine which saves them time.
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