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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?

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by product key you mean the serial number used to install Windows? – Jakob Cosoroaba Aug 16 '10 at 8:54
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RockXP has been mentioned several times, but it looks suspicious, so please do not post an answer with RockXP in it, as it will be removed. Thanks! – studiohack♦ Mar 17 '11 at 20:19
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migrated from stackoverflow.com Aug 16 '10 at 8:26

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4 Answers

up vote 30 down vote
+100

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

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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

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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

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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.

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Keyfinder Thing most like loads slower because it does a more thorough scan? Just a thought. 32bit OS only, darn. – Moab Aug 17 '10 at 1:50
Yes, it scans the entire registry and it takes some time, but not too much. – Mehper C. Palavuzlar Aug 17 '10 at 6:38
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up vote 12 down vote

Nirsofts ProduKey is small and well-trusted.

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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

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up vote 8 down vote

There's the Magical Jelly Bean Keyfinder, though unfortunately it appears to have been superceded by a "paid for" version.

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I guess , its still an open source utility :) – TuxGeek Aug 16 '10 at 9:16
This is a surprise...it's been pulled from sourceforge – Force Flow Aug 16 '10 at 12:27
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Free version here, works on W7 too....majorgeeks.com/Magical_Jelly_Bean_Keyfinder_d2612.html – Moab Aug 17 '10 at 1:47
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up vote 7 down vote

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.

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I just tested this for Sathya. I can't believe how detailed the information it pulled was AND it made a full network map of my corporate network... just WOW! I'll have to bookmark this tool great for remote support! If users could post their belarc config it would be so much easier to fix hardware issues remotely. – Kyle Apr 12 '11 at 14:35
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protected by nhinkle♦ Jun 23 '11 at 23:58

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