Tech Tip: Find your Windows product key

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Created: 01 Dec 2000 ::: Last updated: 16 Sep 2007

Applies to:   Win95   Win98   WinMe   Win 2000/NT   WinXP   WinVista   MacOS

Keywords: tech, tip, windows, registry, product, ID, key, Microsoft, install, regedit

By Andy Walker

Lost the product key that comes with your Windows installation disk? Not to worry - it is lurking deep inside Windows.

From your Start menu, choose Run, then type regedit in the box and click OK.

For Windows 95

- navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersion and look for an entry in the right pane called ProductId.

In Windows 98 and ME

- navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESoftwareMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersion and look for an entry called ProductKey.

In Windows 2000 and XP

- there are in fact two entries, both called ProductKey. One's under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESoftwareMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersion, and the other is in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESoftwareMicrosoftWinNTCurrentVersion.

Your product key is a 25-digit number.

Thanks to Mike Soma for the tip!


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