Helping people with computers... one answer at a time.
Product keys are used to activate or enable a purchased application. You can often find product keys used on your machine with a special application.
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It's important to save that box, sleeve, or whatever else your product key was originally distributed on.
Under certain circumstances, you can retrieve it from the system that it's installed on, but unfortunately, under other circumstances, you cannot.
I'll look at a couple of tools that you can use to see if it's available for you.
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Keyfinder
Keyfinder from Magical Jelly Bean is a free utility that will display your Windows product key.
Be sure to say "no" to the additional toolbar that the Keyfinder install offers you.
Once run, Keyfinder gives you the information for the current system:
I've obscured my information, but you can see where your CD key would be displayed.
Keyfinder is free and works primarily only with Windows keys. On the download page, they do offer another product which is not free, which claims to display product keys from a wide variety of products.
Belarc Advisor
Belarc Advisor is a PC auditing/inventory tool that actually displays a lot of information about your computer.
Download, install, and run Belarc and it'll start by taking a few minutes to analyze your computer. When done, it displays its results in a local web page in your browser.
To the right is an example of the report generated for my machine. As you can see, it's quite lengthy and includes a lot of information about the machine, its hardware, and the software that's installed on it.
Included in the middle of all of that information are the product keys:
Once again, I've obfuscated my own keys, but you can see that Belarc displays keys for a wide variety of installed programs.
My advice
Write down all of your keys and keep them somewhere safe.
Now. Before you need them.
As an example, I have a spreadsheet that I keep of all of the products that I've purchased and their activation keys. Should I ever need to reinstall a program, I have that information readily available. (Naturally, I keep it secure and also back it up regularly.)
In many ways, product keys are the product. It's not uncommon for the software to be readily available, but without a product key, it either won't activate or will deactivate after a trial period.
Don't lose your keys.
Article C5089 - February 25, 2012
Leo A. Notenboom has been playing with computers since he
was required to take a programming class in 1976. An 18 year career as a programmer at Microsoft soon followed.
After "retiring" in 2001, Leo started Ask Leo! in 2003 as a place for answers
to common computer and technical questions. More about Leo.
I think the only times I've encountered the same problem as Dave Markley, is when the machine has been 'downgraded' from Windows Vista to Windows XP. Aside from those one or two instances, I've found Belarc to be 100% reliable.
Posted by: Duane Ferguson at February 28, 2012 12:08 PMHave long used Belarc Advisor---originally to keep easy track of µSoft's voluminous # of updates & their current status---and the product's just gotten better with age. Would be interesting to know just how close Leo's "Security Benchmark Score" is to the "perfect" rating of 10, as I always have questions about implementing full compliance with all of N.I.S.T.'s standards...
Posted by: J.R. Acton, III at February 28, 2012 4:51 PMI've tried both Keyfinder and Belarc. They are good tools. Here are some more similar tools:
TOOLS TO EXTRACT PRODUCT KEY
Normally you have several resources to find your Retail Product Key.
1. Your original package or purchase confirmation email
2. Online download account
3. You can extract the Product Key from the machine itself
4. Image copy backups of system with Office installed
5. Activation backup utilities
I have tried the first 6 in this list with various degrees of success:
http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html - not only does Belarc extract product keys, it reports on a WHOLE BUNCH of other stuff you want to know. Printing the report, or saving it is probably a good idea.
http://www.gtopala.com/ SIW – System Information for Windows (portable app#, the install keys for Windows, Office and some other programs are displayed. Start SIW #no install required# and click on Software | Licenses. #SIW for Win 2010 Build 0714g#
http://www.magicaljellybean.com/ V 2.0.8- Office 2003 OK, 2007 OK, 2010 na, Win Vista Wrong#
http://sourceforge.net/projects/keyfinder/ - Enchanted Keyfinder Beta Portable- Win #9X, ME, NT/2K/XP, Vista, Win7#, MS Office #97, XP, 2003, 2007, 2010#, Recover key for 484 other software and counting
http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/product_cd_key_viewer.html Nirsoft ProduKey V1.45- Office 2003 OK , 2007 , 2010 , Win Vista #
ProduKey may be able to extract product key information from a registry file saved externally. This is useful if you’re trying to get the key details from the backup of a now defunct machine. Try the /Regfile option.
http://www.technibble.com/license-crawler-find-product-keys-in-the-registry/ License Crawler V1.2 B98 #Office 2003, 2007 , 2010 , Win Vista #
http://techblissonline.com/product-key-cd-keyserial-number-software-vista-xp/ - License Crawler for Vista XP #Office 2003 , 2007 , 2010 , Win Vista )
http://www.winkeyfinder.com/download.php
#Office 2003 , 2007 , 2010 , Win Vista )
I have not had an opportunity to try these tools:
Abelssoft MyKeyFinder -
http://www.abelssoft.net/mykeyfinder.php - fouind all Office keys correctly
Advanced Token Manger - Tokens.dat works as a digitally signed file, which stores the majority of the windows activation files.
All files together employ a digital signature that prevents tokens.dat be replaced on other machines
How to Reinstall Vista / Win7 / Office 2010 Without Having to Re-activate – http://www.howtogeek.com/75496/how-to-reinstall-windows-without-having-to-reactivate/
In Windows 7, can you use the Windows.old folder that the installer made to regain that product key?
Try Recover Keys http://recover-keys.com/. They have a free demo version to see if it will work for you. The full version costs $30. Use it search your windows.old and use the hive function to point to the windows.old\windows folder
http://pcsupport.about.com/od/productkeysactivation/tp/topkeyfinder.htm – 13 keyfinder programs
Posted by: Ron007 at February 28, 2012 5:03 PMhttp://recover-keys.com/ - Product Key Finder for Win, Office & 3000+ more prog. #Trial only shows first 4 char)
This article prompted me to check all the product keys I've saved. I found I have the keys from stuff going back to DOS 6.22 and Win 3.1!! Ok.
Posted by: Snert at February 28, 2012 6:55 PMI'm sure I'll never need those keys again, but I'm hanging on to them anyway, JIC.
I use Gearbox KeyFinder PRO for 32-bit keys and MSKeyViewer Plus for 64-bit keys.
Posted by: Derek McLean at February 29, 2012 11:01 AMThey're both free and they have worked every time for me.
That 32/64 demarcation isn't exactly right, but using both always seems to extract all the keys.