How to Check Windows Product Key

Today's TipsMake will show you how to find the Windows product key on your computer. You can use Command Prompt or the free application ProduKey to find the activation key. In addition, ProduKey can also retrieve the key code in the hard drive of a crashed computer. If you upgrade to Windows 10 during the trial period, you won't have a product key, but you can access the digital certificate by signing in to your Microsoft Account on your new computer.

Use Command Prompt

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Open Start . Click the Windows icon in the lower left corner of the screen.

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Enter command promptStart. The Command Prompt application will be found on the computer.

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Click Command Prompt. The app has a black frame at the top of the Start window. Command Prompt will open.

You must log in with an administrator account to find the key this way.

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Enter the product key retrieval command. Type wmic path softwarelicensingservice get OA3xOriginalProductKeyin Command Prompt, then press ↵ Enter.

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Record the product key. You will see the 25-character product key appear right below the command you just entered; This is the product key.

Take a screenshot of the results or write them down to make sure you have the key when needed.

If the above command doesn't work, you need to use ProduKey to find your Windows product key.

Use ProduKey

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Open the ProduKey website. Go to http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/product_cd_key_viewer.html on your computer.

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Scroll down and click Download ProduKey (Print Zip file) near the bottom of the page. The ProduKey setup folder will be downloaded to your computer.

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Open the ProduKey folder. Double-click the ProduKey ZIP file in the default download folder on your computer (such as the desktop).

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Click the Extract tab . It's at the top of the window. A toolbar will appear below the Extract tab .

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Click Extract all . Options are on the right side of the toolbar. A window will pop up.

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Click Extract when it appears. The task is at the bottom of the window. The ProduKey folder will be unzipped and opened.

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Double-click the ProduKey app with the key icon. The ProduKey window will open; You will see 25 key characters to the right of the hard drive name.

You can take a screenshot or write down the key to make sure you have access later.

Retrieve product key on frozen computer

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Connect the frozen computer's hard drive to the working computer. You need to remove the hard drive from the frozen computer, plug the hard drive into the adapter and plug the adapter into another working Windows computer.

Depending on the type of hard drive, you will need a SATA or IDE adapter. IDE drives have wide headers at the end of the connection ribbon, while SATA drives have narrower headers and ribbons.

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Open ProduKey. You may have already downloaded ProduKey, but if not, install it before continuing.

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Click File in the upper left corner of the ProduKey window. A drop-down menu will appear.

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Click Select Source . It's at the top of the drop-down menu. A new window will open.

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Check the box "Load the product keys from external Windows directory". Options are near the top of the window.

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Click Browse … to the right of the text field.

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Select the connected hard drive. Look in the list and click the hard drive you mounted.

You may need to expand the "Computer" option at the top of the list first.

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Click OK at the bottom of the Browse window. The window will close.

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Click OK at the bottom of the Source window.

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Record the product key. You will see the 25-character product key to the right of the hard drive's name; This is the product key of the frozen computer.

You can take a screenshot or write down the key code to make sure you have access later.