How to Find Windows 10 Product Key - 4 Easy Ways to Get Windows License

Microsoft has been changing and improving the way it handles Windows licenses over the last few years.

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 "Digital License" 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.

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. And in a worst-case scenario, you might be trying to find the license for a copy of Windows that no longer boots.

Windows 10 offers several built-in ways to view your Windows product key, but several third-party programs can also help you easily find Windows 10 product key. Let's look at your options.

1. On your PC, type CMD in the Start/taskbar/run box and then select Run as administrator.
2. In the opening elevated Command Prompt window, type the following command and hit ENTER.

wmic path softwarelicensingservice get OA3xOriginalProductKey

The 25-digit product key will then appear.

Note: This method displays the Windows product key stored in your computer’s BIOS or UEFI firmware. In other words, it shows the original Windows key your computer came with.

Enter Windows PowerShell in the search box on the taskbar and press Enter.

Enter the command (Get-WmiObject –query ‘select * from SoftwareLicensingService’).OA3xOriginalProductKey and press Enter. The text displayed in the following format: XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX is the product key.

1. Press Win+R to open the RUN box, then type in the regedit then hit Enter key.
2. In the Windows Registry, go to Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\SoftwareProtectionPlatform
3. You will see the product key appear there as the screenshot shows.

1. There are a few tools out there like Free PC Audit or iSumsoft Product Key Finder that can detect your Windows product key.

2. We'll use iSumsoft Product Key Finder for this tutorial because it can help you find product key and other serial numbers for Windows OS and software programs currently installed on the computer, and back up all product keys in a Notepad file at once.

3. All you have to do is download and install iSumsoft Product Key Finder. Then open the Product Key Finder program, click Start Recovery to see your product key.

4. Click the "Save to File" button to save all product keys.