Windows 10: Clear Product Key from Registry in Windows

How to: Clear Product Key from Registry in Windows

How to Clear Product Key from Registry in Windows


Information When you install and ShowKeyPlus to view your installed product key if lost.

However, having your installed product key in the registry could leave it vulnerable to being stolen from disclosure attacks by malicious software. Clearing the product key from the registry will prevent this, but you will need to make sure to keep a copy of your product key written down and kept in a secure location.

This tutorial will show you how to permanently clear the product key from the registry to prevent it from being stolen in Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 10.

You must be signed in as an administrator to be able to clear the product key from the registry.



Note This will not remove an OEM Windows 8/8.1/10 product key embedded in the UEFI firmware chip.

If you run the slmgr /dli command in a command prompt, you will still be able to see the last 5 characters of the installed product key to help let you know what key you used to activate Windows with.







Here's How:

1. Open an elevated command prompt.

2. Copy and paste the command below into the elevated command prompt, and press Enter. (see screenshot below)
*Arrow slmgr /cpky




3. Click/tap on OK when the product key has successfully been cleared from the registry. (see screenshot below)





That's it,
Shawn


Related Tutorials

• How to Uninstall Product Key to Deactivate Windows 10
• How to View the Product Key in Windows 10
• How to Change Product Key in Windows 10
• How to Activate Windows 10
• How to Use Activation Troubleshooter in Windows 10
• List of Generic Product Keys to Install Windows 10 Editions

:)

 

Activating clean installation Windows 10

I think the activation server has stored your Pro Information so it got auto activated.

First of all uninstall the product key and do clear it from Registry:

Uninstall Product Key and Deactivate Windows 10

Then activate using CMD :

Activate Windows 10

 

Windows 10 install and product key woes

After many many hours I've resolved the problem For the benefit of anyone else with the same problem, here is what I did:

1. Opened elevated command prompt and entered slmgr /upk hit enter and press ok when dialog "Uninstalled Product Key Successfully" appears.

2. Then type slmgr /cpky hit enter and press ok when dialog "Product Key From Registry Cleared Successfully" appears.

3. On the USB drive for installing Windows I created a file named PID.txt and put it in the
Sources folder. In the file I entered:

[PID]

Value=your product key here

4. I then ran the install from the USB drive.

Windows Home installed this time rather than Pro. The product key remained incorrect, but at least the right version is now installed. I tried to update the product key (or product ID as it now seems to be called). It appeared successful and I got no errors,
but even after restarting the incorrect product key still showed up. The following steps resolved the incorrect product key for me:

1. Open Registry Editor (WIN + R, type regedit, hit Enter)

2. Browse to key HKEY_Local Machine > Software > Microsoft > Windows NT > CurrentVersion

3. Change Product ID to the correct product ID.

4. Close the registry editor.

If you check the system page in Control Panel it should now show the correct Product ID.

Hope this helps if you're facing similar difficulties*

* I'm not technical at all, so there may be more 'correct ways' to do this!

 

That would be a good idea to have that included.

*Thumbs