Windows 10: Find Product Key in Windows 10

Yes I ran that vbs... and it says not in bios... that is what is confusing me all up!

 

Then there may not be a product key stored in bios. I recently purchased a factory refurbished Asus laptop with Windows 10 installed from the factory and no product key stored in UEFI because it was refurbished with a motherboard replacement.

 

I started a thread.. and if you look, of course i blocked out the keys, that a few tools show the key is in the bios.... but the vbscript isnt pulling it...

Reading windows 10 key from bios - Windows 10 Forums

 

AFAIK Showkeyplus, Produkey, they all show the generic key in VM, starting with VK7JG.
Regretfully not the original key. I have various legitimate Windows licenses and two pc's, but lost track which product key has been used where.
Obviously uninstall the key (slmgr.vbs -upk) and re-install Windows may be the solution, but it would have been nice if a tool could produce the original key when Windows is installed on a VM.
Ah well ...

BTW does showkeyplus connect with Internet?

Emsisoft reporting . . .
=

=

 

The original key is only available after an upgrade install - on clean installs it get removed with everything else and thus can no longer be retrieved - except from a backup of the previous Windows installation.

It does not matter whether a physical or virtual machine the functionality is the same. - I do most my development testing in VM's and they always provide the same functionality.

ShowKey accesses the releases page on GitHub to check for newer releases... thus the false positive by Emsisoft.

 

Hi,
Just have a query, I have a computer running Windows 10 Pro, which i had upgraded to from Windows 7 during the free upgrade time, and my version of Windows is activated and linked to my Microsoft Account email id. Now I am going to be upgrading my PC (Motherboard, RAM, CPU, HDD) and I already downloaded a Windows 10 ISO from the Microsoft website and created a Windows 10 Install CD. Will I be able to do a fresh install using the old cd key ?
I have attached an image of what my key looks like.

 

Hello @manav1984, and welcome to Ten Forums. *Smile

Since your digital license for the PC is linked to your Microsoft account, you could skip entering the product key during a clean install, and setup Windows with the same Microsoft account during installation on the same PC to have Windows automatically activated on the PC.

If for some reason it doesn't activate, you can use the Activation troubleshooter to get it activated.

Use Activation Troubleshooter in Windows 10 - Windows 10 Installation Upgrade Tutorials

 

As i mentioned, I am upgrading my PC so my hardware will change-including motherboard.

 

As long as this is not an OEM license and is a retail license, you will be able to activate using the method I described.

Determine if Windows License Type is OEM, Retail, or Volume - Windows 10 Installation Upgrade Tutorials

 

You will have to install Windows 10 on the "new" computer, skip entering the product key. Sign in with your Microsoft Account login. Windows 10 will not be activated. Then you use the Activation Troubleshooter that @Brink linked to to move the digital license for Windows 10 from the "old" computer to the "new" computer.

 

Well I upgraded to windows 10 from windows 7. As far as I can remember it was OEM, but that doesnt matter anyways cause all versions upgraded from windows 7 to windows 10 are automatically OEM windows 10 right ?......atleast that is what i hear people saying.

 

They would be incorrect. There was initially some confusion about how a person could transfer the Windows 10 digital license, but assuming that Windows 10 "became OEM" was erroneous. Microsoft then responded to that and provided the method to transfer a digital license by linking it to a Microsoft Account and being able to transfer it that way. Previous to that (and still presently) you were still always able to transfer a Windows 10 license by just installing Windows 10 and entering a retail Windows 7/8/8.1/10 product key to activate it - until the Windows 7/8/8.1 retail product key was used too much and it got blocked from automatic online activation. If your Windows 7/8/8.1 retail product was blocked from automatic online activation due to using it too many times, then you would have to actually install Windows 7, 8 or 8.1, activate that with it's product key using phone activation, then upgrade that to Windows 10.

 

Keys are showing in my HP laptop's Windows 10 Home Single Language x64 upgraded to latest Creators Update. *chuckle

 

Wow.. those screenshots of ShowKeyPlus in the OP brings back memories.. LOL - nice to see *Biggrin

I think in those days it was a 50KB download or something, now it's ... uhmmm, well not...

...but hey, bigger is always better, right?

 

Nice things come in small packages ;-).