Find your Windows product key

A Windows product key is a 25-character code used to activate Windows. It looks like this:

PRODUCT KEY: XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX

Locate your product key for Windows 10

Depending on how you got your copy of Windows 10, you’ll need either a 25-character product key or a digital license to activate it. A digital license (called a digital entitlement in Windows 10, Version 1511) is a method of activation in Windows 10 that doesn’t require you to enter a product key. Without one of these, you won’t be able to activate your device.

Where to find your product key depends on how you got your copy of Windows.

Select any of the following to see more information:

The product key is preinstalled on your PC, included with the packaging the PC came in, or included on the Certificate of Authenticity (COA) attached to the PC. For more info, contact your hardware manufacturer, and for pictures of authentic product keys and COA labels, see How to tell your hardware is genuine.

The product key is on a label or card inside the box that Windows came in. For more info, contact the retailer that sold you Windows 10. How to tell your software is genuine.

Find your product key in the confirmation email you received after buying Windows 10 or in a digital locker accessible through the retailer’s website.

The product key is in the confirmation email you received after buying your digital copy of Windows. Microsoft only keeps a record of product keys if you purchased from the Microsoft online store. You can find out if you purchased from Microsoft in your Microsoft account Order history.

If you upgraded to Windows 10 for free from Windows 7 or Windows 8.1, you should have a digital license instead of a product key.

If you bought Windows 10 Home, Professional, or Upgrade to Pro in the Windows 10 Store app, you’ll receive a digital license instead of a product key. You can use the digital license for activation.

If your product key is scratched, blurred, or otherwise unusable, contact the retailer who sold you the product. If you aren’t able to get help from your retailer or have already tried and couldn’t get a working key, call Microsoft Support.

For more information about digital licenses and product keys in Windows 10, see the “Methods of Activation” section in Activate Windows 10.

Locate your product key for Windows 7 or Windows 8.1

A product key is usually required when uninstalling or reinstalling Windows 7 or Windows 8.1. Generally, if you bought a physical copy of Windows, the product key should be on a label or card inside the box that Windows came in. If Windows came preinstalled on your PC, the product key should appear on a sticker on your device. If you’ve lost or can’t find the product key, contact the manufacturer. To ensure your product key is genuine, see How to tell your software is genuine and How to tell your hardware is genuine.

Related links

For info about how to tell if your copy of Windows is genuine Microsoft software, see the How to tell page.

For more Windows 10 download info, see Download Windows 10.

If you need installation media to install or reinstall Windows, see Create installation media for Windows to learn how to create your own installation media using either a USB flash drive or a DVD.

If you need more help with activation, see Activate Windows 10.

If you’re getting an activation error, see Get help with Windows activation errors.

If you’re reinstalling Windows 10, you might not need a Windows product key. See Activation in Windows 10 for more info.

If you’re reinstalling Windows 10 due to a motherboard problem or some other hardware issue, see Reactivating Windows 10 after a hardware change.

If you’re looking for product keys for Office, apps, games, and more, see Find your Microsoft downloads and product keys

How to Find Windows Product Key via Command in Windows or Linux

Have you ever needed to find a Windows product key? Maybe you’re troubleshooting a Windows PC, planning on re-installing Windows 10 in a virtual machine, installing on a PC, or installing into Boot Camp on a Mac, or maybe you have a PC computer running Windows that needs the Windows product key for some reason or another.

This article will show you three different ways for how to find a Windows product key directly from Windows itself on the computer, without having to rely on tracking down the Windows product key card from a box, email, or COA. So if you lost or misplaced any of those, don’t worry, the methods covered will work to retrieve the Windows product key directly from Windows 10, Windows 8, Windows 7, or even Linux. And yes if you’re running Windows in Boot Camp on a Mac or in a VM, these tricks work there too.

This article is obviously aimed at users who need their Windows product key for whatever reason. Nonetheless, it’s worth remembering that you can download the Windows 10 ISO directly from Microsoft for free, and you can then use that ISO to create a Windows 10 installer drive for Boot Camp, install Windows 10 into VirtualBox (also free), into Parallels or VMWare, or even for installing on PC hardware. And no, you do not need to activate in order to install Windows 10 from the ISO, nor do you need a product key, but of course there are some limitations with running Windows without activation, of which you can always activate later if needed. Anyway, assuming you have an authorized version of Windows running somewhere and you need the product key, read on to discover three ways to retrieve it.

How to Get the Windows Product Key via cmd in Windows

The simplest way to find the Windows Product Key license is to turn to a privileged command prompt in Windows and execute a command that retrieves the software license product key.

From Windows, open a new Administrator Command Prompt window and then enter the following syntax:

wmic path softwarelicensingservice get OA3xOriginalProductKey

Hit Enter / Return for the Windows product key to be displayed, it is a 25 character alphanumeric string in the format of the following:

That’s it. You can get the Windows product key on nearly any Windows installation using this method.

How to Find Windows Product License Key via Powershell

You can also retrieve a Windows product key from Windows Power Shell with the following command string, entered into a privileged command prompt:

powershell «(Get-WmiObject -query ‘select * from SoftwareLicensingService’).OA3xOriginalProductKey»

Regardless of which method you use, the product key will be the same (assuming it’s being run on the same installation of Windows anyway).

How to Get Windows Product Key via Linux

You can also get the Windows Product Key from Linux by entering the following privileged command:

sudo cat /sys/firmware/acpi/tables/MSDM | tail -c 32 | xargs -0 echo

Executed correctly with the proper syntax and you’ll find your Windows product key immediately reported back.

This handy linux trick was found on Twitter by @brandonprry and is perfect for users who dual boot Windows and Linux on a computer. And no, in case you were wondering, the linux specific trick does not seem to work from a Mac running Windows in Boot Camp, but if you do know of a method to retrieve a Windows product key used in Boot Camp from Mac OS, share it with us in the comments below.

You can use any of the three methods outlined above to find the Windows product key, obviously two are specific to Windows while the third applies to Linux. There are other options available as well, including using Windows specific utilities like ProduKey which can reveal a Windows product key as well as a Microsoft Office product key, which is quite helpful if you’ve misplaced those as well.

Where can I find the Windows product key usually?

Aside from using the above methods to find a Windows Product Key, the typical places you’d find the 25 digit license key code are; on the COA sticker, in the physical software box, or in an email if you bought Windows digitally.

As you may already know, the most typical place for the Windows product key to be found is on the shiny COA (Certificate of Authenticity) sticker adhered to the enclosure of a Windows PC, whether it’s a laptop or desktop, but maybe that sticker was lost, peeled off, damaged, or never included at all.

If you bought a physical copy of Windows, the product key is typically included in the box itself on a piece of paper, but of course that can be lost or misplaced.

And if you bought Windows digitally, you typically get the product key in an email instead.

But if you’re running Windows in a virtual machine, or on a Mac in Boot Camp, or on a home-built PC or even some laptops, the Certificate of Authenticity sticker for Windows that includes the product key will not be available, and perhaps you long ago lost the email or box containing the product key itself. Or maybe you’re on the road and just don’t have the materials with you, or access to the email or other methods of obtaining the license key. This happens fairly often, regardless of how, where, and why you’re using Windows, which is why it can be so helpful to retrieve the product key directly from software.

Obviously if you don’t use Windows then this will be of no use to you, but Windows remains the most common operating system in corporate, government, and educational environments, and that’s unlikely to change anytime soon. So even if you’re a heavy Mac user or Linux user, you may still be working with Windows from time-to-time, and this can apply to you as well.

If you know of any other tips, tricks, or methods to obtain the Windows product key license number from Windows, Linux, or Mac OS, share them with us in the comments below!

How to find your Windows product key

This article will show you how to find your Windows product key.

Digital License (Windows 10)

If your PC ever had Windows 10 installed and activated on it, it probably created a digital license. A digital license is a hash of your hardware that gets sent to Microsoft, along with the product key that was used to activate Windows on that computer. If you ever need to reinstall Windows, just choose «I don’t have a product key» during installation. Windows will contact the Microsoft Activation servers after installation, and activate with your digital license.

Note: If you activated Windows 10 using a valid Windows 7 or Windows 8.1 product key, you’ll also have a digital license.

Printed on a Certificate of Authenticity Sticker (Usually older PCs running Windows 7, Vista and XP)

If you have an older PC that came with Windows 7 or earlier, the product key is usually found on the Certificate of Authenticity sticker. The sticker is usually located on the underside of laptops, and could be on the top, sides, or bottom of a desktop tower. It looks something like this:

Embedded in the UEFI/BIOS (Usually newer PCs running Windows 8 or Windows 10)

Most new PCs sold in stores today come with the product key permanently embedded in the firmware. Instead of printing the product key on a sticker where it could be easily stolen or smudged off, manufacturers are now opting to store it in the UEFI or BIOS. The firmware is located in ROM on the motherboard, which means if you upgrade other components like your hard drive, RAM, graphics card, or even your CPU, you should still be able to activate Windows.

If you reinstall Windows, it will communicate with the firmware to install the embedded key. There is no need to retrieve the key yourself. If you want to retrieve it, you can do so by running the following command in cmd or Windows PowerShell:

wmic path SoftwareLicensingService get OA3xOriginalProductKey

I purchased Windows 10 separately (Retail or OEM licenses)

You can purchase Windows 10 as a digital download, or you can buy it in the box at a brick and mortar store.

— For digital downloads through Microsoft

You should receive an email with your product key, sent to the Microsoft account that was used to purchase Windows 10 online. If you can’t find the email, check your spam folders. You can also get it by logging into your Microsoft account and going to the purchase history tab.

— For digital downloads through Amazon

— If you bought Windows 10 in the retail packaging

Look in the box for a card with your product key printed on it. It’ll be about the size of a credit card with a 25-digit alphanumeric string printed on it.

Azure Dev Tools for Teaching (formerly known as Microsoft Imagine and Dreamspark)

This program provides students with Microsoft services, tools, training and operating systems at a discount or for free. Check with your school or university to find out if you can access this subscription and how to get assistance with the software licensing.

How to find Windows Product Key using Command Prompt or PowerShell

When you enter, register, and activate your copy of Windows, using a Retail key, the information is stored in the Windows Registry. Users of OEM computers may have noticed that, for a couple of years, the manufacturers have stopped pasting their COA or Certificate of Authenticity sticker, which displayed the Windows product key to the machine anymore. Now this key is embedded in the BIOS/UEFI.

Find Windows Product Key

It is to be noted that a Retail product license is tied to the person whereas the OEM product key is tied to the machine, as per Microsoft Windows Desktop licensing terms. In this post, we will see how to find the original Windows Product Key using Command Prompt or PowerShell, from BIOS or Registry. It works for Retail & OEM licenses too.

Recover Windows product key using Command Prompt

From the WinX Menu in Windows 10 / 8.1, open an elevated command prompt window, type the following command and hit Enter:

Your Windows product key will be displayed.

Get Windows License Key using PowerShell

To find your Windows 10 Product Key, open a PowerShell window with administrative privileges, type the following command and hit Enter:

Your Windows license key will appear! This will work on Windows 10/ 8.1/7/Vista.

In Windows 10, the product key will probably be encrypted, tied to your Microsoft Account and stored by Microsoft in the cloud too.

If you are looking for an easier way, you can also use some free Software Key Finders to recover and save, not just Windows, but even Office, Software, Games serials and license keys.

This post will help you if you want to uninstall the Windows Product Key.