windows - Is there a product key finder for a PC?
2014-04
Questioner
How can I find the product keys for my Windows operating system and software installed, like Office, Adobe Creative Suite, and other software which requires an activation key?
8088
Keyfinder Thing
Keyfinder Thing is an easy to use, fully featured free key finder program.
Pros
- Simple user interface
- Extremely small download size
- Instant display of several product keys
- Ability to export found keys for backup purposes
- Ability to scan entire registry for serial numbers
Cons
- Slower to load than competition
LicenseCrawler
LicenseCrawler is a free key finder program. It is simple to use but very impressive with the variety of serial numbers and product keys it finds.
Pros
- No installation necessary
- Very easy interface
- Quickly scans the registry for serial numbers and product keys
Cons
- Results are cluttered with registry details and other non-product key information
Product Key Finder
Product Key Finder is an extremely simple but very functional free key finder.
Pros
- No installation or unzipping required
- Easiest interface of any key finder I've ever tested
- Instant display of most popular product keys and serial numbers
- Well formatted display of keys
Cons
- Lack of any advanced options whatsoever
Product Key Finder (OTT Solutions)
Product Key Finder is a free tool that will display the installed Windows Product Key and other important Windows system information. Product Key Finder works with the following Windows operating systems (2000, 2003, XP, Vista, 2008, 7), 32-bit and 64-bit. You will be able to save all product keys to a text or an xml file.
8088
Nirsofts ProduKey is small and well-trusted.
Note: some antivirus software may detect this as a virus. None of NirSoft's products are viruses but they can be used by them. Read: http://www.nirsoft.net/false_positive_report.html
Rob
There's the Magical Jelly Bean Keyfinder, though unfortunately it appears to have been superceded by a "paid for" version.
studiohack
There is Belarc Advisor, free for personal use. It scans your computer for several minutes and finds all the product keys stored on the PC, including the Windows OS product key.
The Belarc Advisor builds a detailed profile of your installed software and hardware, missing Microsoft hotfixes, anti-virus status, CIS (Center for Internet Security) benchmarks, and displays the results in your Web browser. All of your PC profile information is kept private on your PC and is not sent to any web server.
Note: I am not in any way affiliated with this product; have used in the past to extract my OS product key, as well as my Office key.
Kev
I have a MSDN Premium License and forgot which key (you get to claim 10 keys) I used to activate one of my Windows 7 installs.
I've always wondered why Microsoft don't show the current Windows Product Key in System Information? Why should I have to use a third party application to recover this?
Can anyone recommend one of these key recovery tools (which always look pretty dodgy) and vouch that it isn't malware loaded?
William Hilsum
I personally like Magic Jelly Bean Keyfinder for serial keys of Microsoft and other popular products.
The best I can figure out as to why Microsoft disables this by default is simply to stop casual people copying down the key and trying it on other systems - imagine if you just went to see a demo unit at the shop and re-used their serial key... I know it probably wouldn't work being OEM and tied, however having it a different length just stops any possibility of every day people trying.
Moose
Belarc Advisor will retrieve everything you need. Nice free stuff.
Will Eddins
With Windows XP, you could activate fresh installations of Windows using that product key 5 times before activation would fail.
If the key was displayed in System Information, a person could walk by your computer, press Windows + Break to bring up the System Information panel, and copy the product key, with no way for you to prevent its future use.
Viewing product keys in any piece of software can usually be looked down upon as a security issue. I'm not aware of any games or pieces of software that will reveal the key used for activation after the fact, and normal users generally do not have multiple product keys in the way you do.
Josh Kelley