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How to Check Your Windows Product Key

This wikiHow teaches you how to find a Windows activation key on your computer. You can use your computer's Command Prompt application to find the key, or you can use the free ProduKey application to locate it. You can also use ProduKey to...
Part 1 of 3:

Using Command Prompt

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    Open Start
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    . Click the Windows logo in the bottom-left corner of the screen.
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    Type command prompt into Start. This will search the computer for the Command Prompt app.
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    Click
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    Command Prompt. It's a black box at the top of the Start window. Command Prompt will open.
    1. You must be on an administrator account in order to retrieve your key in this way.
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    Enter the product key retrieval code. Type wmic path softwarelicensingservice get OA3xOriginalProductKey into Command Prompt, then press ↵ Enter.
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    Note your product key. You should see the 25-character product key appear directly below the command that you entered; this is your product key.
    1. Take a screenshot of the results or write down the key to make sure that you have access to it if needed.
    2. If this command doesn't work, you'll need to use ProduKey to find your Windows product key.
Part 2 of 3:

Using ProduKey

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    Open the ProduKey website. Go to http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/product_cd_key_viewer.html on a working computer.
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    Scroll down and click Download ProduKey (In Zip file). It's near the bottom of the page. Doing so will prompt the ProduKey setup folder to download onto your computer.
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    Open the ProduKey folder. Double-click the ProduKey ZIP folder in your computer's default downloads folder (e.g., the desktop).
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    Click the Extract tab. It's at the top of the window. A toolbar will appear below Extract.
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    Click Extract all. This option is on the far-right side of the toolbar. Clicking it prompts a window to pop up.
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    Click Extract when prompted. It's at the bottom of the window. Doing so will decompress the ProduKey folder and open it for you.
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    Double-click the ProduKey application. It resembles a key. The ProduKey window will open; you should see your computer's 25-character product key to the right of the hard drive's name.
    1. You can take a screenshot of the key or write it down to make sure you have access to it later.
Part 3 of 3:

Retrieving a Crashed Computer's Key

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    Attach the crashed computer's hard drive to a working computer. You'll need to remove the hard drive from the crashed computer, plug it into an adapter, and then plug the adapter into a working Windows computer.
    1. Depending on the hard drive, you'll either need a SATA adapter or an IDE adapter. An IDE drive has a several-inch-wide connector at the end of its connection ribbon, while a SATA drive has a more narrow ribbon and connector.
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    Open ProduKey. You should have downloaded ProduKey already, but if not, do so before continuing.
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    Click File. This is in the top-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. Clicking this prompts a new window to open.
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    Check the "Load the product keys from external Windows directory" box. This option is near the top of the window.
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    Click Browse…. It's to the right of the text field.
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    Select the attached hard drive. Find the attached hard drive in the list, then click it.
    1. You may first have to expand the "Computer" option at the top of the list.
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    Click OK. It's at the bottom of the Browse window. Doing so closes the window.
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    Click OK. This option is at the bottom of the Source window.
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    Note your product key. You should see a 25-character product key to the right of the hard drive's name; this is the crashed computer's product key.
    1. You can take a screenshot of the key or write it down to make sure you have access to it later.
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