3 different ways to recover your Windows 10 product key

 If you want to reinstall the Windows operating system on your PC, you need the Windows product key to activate Windows. If you are wondering where and how to get this product key, read on. In this article, we will discuss 3 different ways to find the product key in the system.

NOTICE: 

• The Windows product key is not required if you have a Microsoft account associated with your Windows product key.
• If you are using Windows 10 and want to reinstall Windows 10 in the system, the product key is not required. The system will automatically detect that this device has been previously activated and just needs to be activated again.
• The key is required if you are using an earlier version of Windows (pre-Windows 10 versions) and want to reinstall Windows 10 in the system and the Microsoft account is not linked to the product key.

Method 1: From authenticity sticker

NOTE: This method works for systems that came with Windows 7 or earlier versions.

The PCs come with a sticker called a Certificate of Authenticity (COA), which is labeled below on laptops and on either the back or sides or top of desktops. The Windows product key is printed on the COA sticker.

If you find that the sticker is worn or you cannot read the contents of the sticker because the contents are erased or smudged, try the next method listed below.

Method 2: From UEFI firmware

NOTE: If the system uses Windows 8 and later, the product key will be embedded in the UEFI firmware.

Step 1: Search PowerShell in Windows 10 search box. Right click on powershell and run as administrator .

Step 2: In the PowerShell command, type the following command and press Enter

(Get-WmiObject-Abfrage "select * from SoftwareLicensingService").OA3xOriginalProductKey

The 25-digit Windows product key is displayed.

If you still cannot find your key with this method, try the next method.

Method 3: From the Windows registry

NOTE: Although this method is straight forward, please take some help if you are not an advanced PC user.

Step 1: Open Notepad

Step 2: In the Notepad window, copy and paste the code below

Setze WshShell = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
MsgBox ConvertToKey(WshShell.RegRead("HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\DigitalProductId"))

function ConvertToKey(key)
Const KeyOffset = 52
i = 28
Character = "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: Save the file. To do this, press the Ctrl+S keys

Step 4: The Save As window will open.

Step 5: In the address bar, select the desired location . example, desktop

Step 6: In the Filename section, give the productkey.vbs file a name.

NOTE: .vbs indicates the extension and is mandatory

Step 7: Choose All Files as Save As type

Step 8: Finally, click on the Save button

Step 9: Double click on the .vbs file you created . In this case productkey.vbs   the Windows product key is displayed in a dialog box.

That's all.

We hope this article was informative. Please comment and let us know if this article helped you. Also let us know if you have any problems, we are happy to help.