Do You Need A Serial Key For Windows 10
Have you lost or misplaced your Windows 10 product key? Bought a new PC with Windows 10 preinstalled but with product key sticker missing? Don't worry! Depending on how you got a genuine copy of Windows 10, here are different ways to find Windows 10 product key.
Method 1: Check COA Sticker or Email
Perhaps one of the little unknown secrets about a Windows 10 installation is that you do not need to use a product key during the process. Oh, Windows 10 prompts you for it, twice in fact. Should you ever need to get a hold of your Windows product key or the serial number of any of your software, you can retrieve this from your existing, legitimate installation of Windows in not time flat.
If you bought a physical copy of Windows 10, the product key should either be on a card inside the box, or a sticker on the DVD sleeve. It should look a lot like the image you see here.
If you purchased a digital copy of Windows 10 directly from Microsoft or Amazon with no disc or packaging, your product key will be within the confirmation email that came when you placed the order. Try searching your email for your order history, and you might find the key.
If you upgraded to Windows 10 for free from Windows 8 / 7, you should have a digital license instead of a product key. Just open the Settings app and head to Update & Security ->Activation, 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 link a Microsoft account with the digital license by clicking 'Add a Microsoft Account' on the bottom of the same Activation page. So after re-installing Windows 10, sign-in with the same Microsoft account. Windows will get activated automatically without a code.
Method 2: Find Windows 10 Product Key with CMD or PowerShell
If you purchased a new computer with Windows 10 preinstalled, you will no longer see a sticker on the back or top of the machine. Instead, the product key has been embedded into your PC's UEFI firmware. To retrieve the product key, open the Command Prompt and run this command:
Or open Windows PowerShell and type this following:
Method 3: Recover Windows 10 Product Key with KeyFinder Plus
Still couldn't locate your Windows 10 product key using the above methods? Try the KeyFinder Plus program which can recover both UEFI-embedded OEM key as well as the retail product key from your activated copy of Windows 10 system.
After launching KeyFinder Plus, click on the Start Recovery button and it will give you options to recover product keys from local machine, external hard drive or network PC. Just select the first option and the program will quickly delve into the registry / UEFI firmware, and come up with the product keys for Windows, Office and other software that you have installed.
Conclusion
Losing Windows 10 product key does not mean you have to purchase the license again, as most of the time you can recover it using the above methods. If you know other ways of quickly finding lost Windows 10 product key, do not hesitate to share them with us.
• Specify your types of your lost files before analyzing for specific search results. Easeus data recovery wizard professional 8.5 serial key. • Filter your search by name, type and file date to find the file faster. • You can pause and continue the process at any time, scan results can be kept and imported to start another recovery without analyzing again. • Get the data to locate your lost files and check their details and quality before recovery.
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If you've purchased a new PC with Windows pre-installed in the past few years, you might have noticed a few changes on the outside of the device.
The biggest change is the absence of a product key, which was included on the holographic Certificate of Authenticity (COA) sticker with PCs that came pre-installed with Windows 7 or earlier versions.
Beginning with Windows 8, that information is no longer on a COA but is instead embedded in the BIOS. If you re-install the same version of Windows that came with your PC, it should activate automatically.
If you want to record that product key so that you can restore Windows later, it's easy enough to do. Open a PowerShell window and issue this command:
(Get-WmiObject -query 'select * from SoftwareLicensingService').OA3xOriginalProductKey
If you see no output, that means your system does not include the Windows key in the BIOS, as is often the case with home-built PCs, devices built by a System Builder OEM, or those that were originally sold with a Windows 10 license.
Network administrators who manage licensing using Key Management Services can get details about PCs on the network using a different set of options for the same PowerShell command. To view all details about a machine's current licensing status, use this command:
Get-WMIObject -Class SoftwareLicensingService Select-Object -Property *
Serial Key Generator
(Be sure to include the asterisk at the end of that command.)
To save the key, click in the PowerShell window, drag the mouse pointer across the entire 25-character key, and then right-click. Although nothing appears to happen, your selection has actually been copied to the Clipboard. Paste it into a text file and save it in a safe place.
Previous tip: Find out if your PC can run Hyper-V
Next week: Another Windows 10 tip from Ed Bott
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