If you’re planning on doing a reinstall of Windows but can’t find your product key, you’re in luck because it’s stored in the Windows Registry… it’s just not easy to find, and it’s impossible to read without some help. Luckily, we’re here to help.
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. You aren’t, are you?
Reinstalling Windows is one of the easiest ways to fix software problems on your computer, whether it’s running slow or...[Read Article]
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. We can only assume that they don’t want anybody to re-use a key from an old computer.
The great thing is that you can even recover a key from a computer that won’t boot anymore. All you need is access to the disk drive from a working computer. Keep reading for more.
Note: the NirSoft keyfinder won’t always work for OEM computers, depending on how they decided to activate the licenses they might have used a single license for all computers. It also doesn’t work for Office 2013.
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