How to Find My Windows 10 Product Key

You always have a product key attached when you run Windows 10 on your computer. Either you designed it or bought it. Or you run an activated Windows 10 version. But how do I find my windows 10 product key? Here is the answer.

In the past, the product key was necessary for Windows to be installed and reinstalled on your computer. You won’t stop using a clean Windows 10 install without one and you probably won’t have to enter it in certain cases.

Here are some methods below to find windows 10 to protect the key. You can also find the protect key using the command prompt.

Find the Protect Key From the Outside of the Windows

You can retrieve the Windows key from an external drive, like Windows To Go, or connect the non-booted Windows drive to another computer when you are unable to boot into Windows.

By default, the Windows key with the non-boot drive is offline and must be allowed in disk management while you are retrieving a key from the workspace of the Windows. 

Step 1: First, you have to right-click on the drive, and then, you have to set the drive to “online”. 

Step 2: Then, you have to navigate to the following path. You have to navigate from the registry panel if the key is not available in the text.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ 

Step 3: Once, you are there, you have to search for the “DigitalProductId”. You will find it on the right side of the window.

Step 4: You will find the registry hive on the OS drive. This is located at Windows\System32\Config. You have to find the SOFTWARE file.

Step 5: The Windows keys can be searched on your device using the products on distant domains and elsewhere. For this, you have to open the Windows Registry Editor on your computer. 

Step 6: There, you have to click on the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE.

Step 7: Now, you have to click on File and you have to go to the SOFTWARE file there through Windows\System32\Config.

Step 8: You have to set a name to the external hive file. The file will be a sub-entry in the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE.

Step 9: You have to choose the file name and then upload the hive. For this, you have to go to the File and select Upload Hive from the menu.

Further Resources

While you may automatically detect your Windows key from the UEFI/BIOS, if you prefer an additional license, you have to change the Windows install files.

Step 1: First, you have to go to the File Explorer and open the installation media. 

Step 2: Then, you have to browse for the sources folder. You have to create there a file and name it PID.txt. It will be a text file. You have to create it in the source folder. Here, The PID will be the following:

Value of PID= XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX

Here the value of the PID or the Xs is replaced with the license key. 

Step 3: Again, it is possible to uninstall the retail key from a computer and even though the details on the Microsoft servers will not immediately be updated, future disputes on several machines with the same key will be prevented.

Step 4: Enter the line below in a command administrator prompt to uninstall the product license that is currently active and delete it from Windows Registry.

slmgr.vbs /upk

slmgr /cpky

Step 5: In the final test anecdote, you will be able to unlock this Windows copy by clicking “Troubleshoot”. You will find it on the activation page.

With only one click and the wizard found the digital license, even though it’s not connected to a Microsoft account. This is a retail key used in a laptop like a Windows To Go drive. 

Find the Windows 10 Product Key via the Command Prompt

You can find your windows 10 protect key via a command prompt. For this, you have to follow the steps below:

Step 1: First, you have to open the command prompt on your computer. You have to type cmd in the search engine, or Cortana and find the command prompt.

Step 2: You have to right-click on the command prompt and select Run as administrator from the menu bar.

Step 3: Once, you enter into the command prompt window, you have to type the following command in the command line:

wmic path softwarelicensingservice get OA3xOriginalProductKey

After typing the command, you have to press Enter.

Step 4: Finally, the product key with 25 digits will have appeared.

The Windows product key is stored in the BIOS or UEFI firmware of your device. It displays on your screen with the original Windows key. If Windows has been built with different keys, this will be different from your PC’s current key. If you want to use the current key on your PC, the ProduKey of NirSoft is an excellent graphical tool.

Find the Windows 10 Product Key via Windows Registry 

Step 1: First, you have to open the Notepad on your computer. For this, you have to right-click on a blank space on the screen. There, you have to take the cursor of your mouse on the “New,” and select “Text Document” from there.

Step 2: Once, you open the notepad, you have to paste the following code there:

Set WshShell = CreateObject(“WScript.Shell”)

MsgBox ConvertToKey(WshShell.RegRead(“HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\DigitalProductId”))

Function ConvertToKey(Key)

Const KeyOffset = 52

i = 28

Chars = “BCDFGHJKMPQRTVWXY2346789”

Do

Cur = 0

x = 14

Do

Cur = Cur * 256

Cur = Key(x + KeyOffset) + Cur

Key(x + KeyOffset) = (Cur \ 24) And 255

Cur = Cur Mod 24

x = x -1

Loop While x >= 0

i = i -1

KeyOutput = Mid(Chars, Cur + 1, 1) & KeyOutput

If (((29 – i) Mod 6) = 0) And (i <> -1) Then

i = i -1

KeyOutput = “-” & KeyOutput

End If

Loop While i >= 0

ConvertToKey = KeyOutput

End Function

Step 3: Now, you have to click on the “File” at the top of the window and you have to select “Save As.” From the menu.

Step 4: Next, you have to set “All Files” as the “Save As Type” and also set a file name. You can set the name according to your choice but the file extension must be a .vbs file. For example, you can set the name as a product key.vbs

Step 5: After that, you have to save the file.

Step 6: Finally, you have to open the file and you can see the product key of your windows 10.

Conclusion

You may only need your product key of Windows 10 for few times, but having the product key is very significant. Apply the methods to find your product key on Windows 10.