• How To Retrieve Windows 10 Key
• What Is My License Key
• Where Is My License Key Located
• License Key Download

Aug 2, 2018 - You shouldn't actually need a Windows 10 product key any more so I will. Ever since Windows 3.1, Microsoft has attempted to stem the tide of. In the Windows 10 Anniversary Update, you can now attach your free Windows 10 license to your Microsoft account (MSA).Tying your MSA to your Windows 10 license key allows you to reactivate your PC.

For a long time Windows PCs (OEMs) came with a product key sticker that was often placed outside of the machine or with your computer's manuals, but now manufacturers are storing this license within the machine's UEFI/BIOS and the information is automatically retrieved and applied when reinstalling the operating system. Certainly a better approach overall. Additionally, Windows 10 introduced a 'Digital Entitlement' element to Microsoft's license which links your Windows key to an ID generated based on your PC's hardware. But because your hardware can significantly change if you upgrade your hardware, this entitlement was expanded to become a when 2016's Anniversary Update (1607) arrived. This means your Windows 10 license now ties Windows keys to Microsoft accounts, letting you activate a copy of the operating system simply by logging in with valid online credentials. So, if you have a newer Windows PC or you already log in using your Microsoft account, you generally shouldn't have to search for your original Windows 10 key. We will explain that in better detail in a minute.

There may be other scenarios where you may still want to manually find a Windows key stored in your UEFI/BIOS, or prevent this key from automatically being applied during installation. Not to mention that different conditions apply for non-OEM retail keys, as well as those given to people who upgraded to Windows 10 for free.

How To Retrieve Windows 10 Key

And in a worst case scenario, you might be trying to find the license for a copy of Windows that no longer boots. Windows OEM keys vs. Free upgrade There are many types of with varying terms of use. As a general rule of thumb: • OEM keys are shipped with a specific computer and can't be transferred to another machine. Again, these should be auto-applied from your UEFI/BIOS when reinstalling Windows on a modern boxed PC, but you can also retrieve them manually. • Retail keys are purchased directly from Microsoft, Amazon etc.

-- these can be transferred to another machine and that process should happen automatically for a digital license, though you can also 'uninstall' a Windows key from a given PC. • Those who upgraded to Windows 10 for free from Windows 7 and 8 don't have a unique Windows 10 key. This can only be transferred to one other machine (not if you upgraded from an OEM key). Free upgrade licenses are a digital entitlement. Do I have a digital license?

The Windows 10 Settings app has a page for displaying your activation information, including whether you have a digital license, though your key isn't shown here: Go to: Settings > Update & Security > Activation If you have a digital license, you should see 'Windows is activated with a digital license' or 'Windows is activated with a digital license linked to your Microsoft account.' You can also link a Microsoft account to a Windows license by clicking 'add a Microsoft Account' on the bottom of the same page and providing your login information.

What Is My License Key

Find your key from inside Windows Entering the following lines into an or PowerShell worked to display the OEM key embedded in our system's UEFI/BIOS. However, these commands didn't return any keys on other two machines we used for testing despite Windows 10 being activated.

Wmic path softwarelicensingservice get OA3xOriginalProductKey or powershell '(Get-WmiObject -query ‘select * from SoftwareLicensingService’).OA3xOriginalProductKey' There's also a commonly cited Visual Basic script that retrieves registry-based Windows keys (not those stored in the UEFI/BIOS). You can download the.

Where Is My License Key Located

Copy this text and paste it into Notepad, saving it as a.vbs file. Then double-click to launch the file. Third-party tools that find Windows keys We downloaded a variety of utilities that can retrieve retail keys from the Windows registry as well as those that are UEFI/BIOS-bound. In testing, some of the applications found both the registry and UEFI/BIOS keys, while others only worked for one or the other: - Found both the embedded OEM key as well as the retail key from our currently running copy of Windows.

License Key Download

Also includes keys for many other applications such as Microsoft Office and Adobe products (strangely, Internet Explorer was also included in our results, though no key was provided). As with some of the other tools on this list, ProduKey can load Windows keys from external sources/drives. - This utility also found both our retail and OEM keys, and can load the SOFTWARE hive file from another Windows installation.