How To Get Windows Key From Bios

If you're having trouble finding your Windows 10 product key, we've got you covered.

In this quick tutorial we'll go over what a Windows product fundamental is, and I'll share several ways to find the product key on modernistic Windows machines.

What'due south a Windows 10 product key?

A Windows product key or license is a 25 digit lawmaking used to activate your installation of Windows.

Back in the day, all you had to practice to notice your Windows product central was look for a sticker somewhere on the auto.

Commonly you could notice the sticker on the side of a desktop PC, or stuck to the bottom of a laptop:

Picture of a Windows 7 product key sticker — An quondam-school Windows product key sticker – Source

Or if you bought a physical copy of Windows, your production key would be included somewhere in the box:

windows-10-physical-product-key — A Windows 10 product key label - Source

These days, if yous buy a Windows 10 Habitation or Pro from the Microsoft Shop or another online retailer similar Amazon, it'll include a digital re-create of your product fundamental.

But if your computer is relatively new and came with Windows preinstalled, you might be wondering how to find your key – at that place's likely no sticker on the motorcar, and the computer manufacturer probably didn't include ane in the box.

Whether you installed and activated Windows yourself, or information technology came preinstalled, your product key is stored in the BIOS. This makes it actually easy if you ever want to reinstall or upgrade Windows – at that place'due south no sticker on the machine that could become damaged, and no small-scale label to lose.

Still, there are times when you might need your product key, similar if yous want to transfer a Windows Home or Pro license to some other machine.

Any the reason, here are a few ways to get your Windows 10 product primal.

How to get your Windows 10 product key with the Control Prompt

If you want to get your product key from Windows, the easiest mode is to do that is through the Windows Command Prompt.

Outset, printing the Windows fundamental, search for "cmd", and click on "Run as administrator":

Screenshot of opening the command prompt as an administrator

Then, run the following command:

                wmic path softwarelicensingservice get OA3xOriginalProductKey

After that, yous'll see your Windows ten production key:

Alternatively, yous can run this command in the Command Prompt terminal:

                powershell "(Get-WmiObject -query 'select * from SoftwareLicensingService').OA3xOriginalProductKey"

Output of the powershell command listed above

Both of these commands attempt to read your Windows product fundamental from something called the OA3 BIOS marking. In other words, they may only work if Windows came preinstalled, and non if you lot built the auto yourself and installed/activated Windows.

If your product key isn't saved to your BIOS/UEFI for some reason, then these commands will either throw an error or return an empty string. In this case, or if you prefer a GUI, give the next method a attempt.

How to get your Windows 10 product key with a tertiary-party programme

There are a few tools out at that place like Belarc Advisor or Magical Jelly Bean KeyFinder that can detect your Windows product primal.

We'll use Magical Jelly Bean KeyFinder for this tutorial because, well – come on, that name, correct?

All you have to do is download and install Magical Jelly Edible bean KeyFinder. So open the KeyFinder program to run into your production key:

Screenshot of the Windows product key in Magical Jellybean KeyFinder

In one case you've copied your product key somewhere safe, experience free to uninstall Magical Jelly Edible bean KeyFinder.

So those are some quick ways to find your Windows x production cardinal.

Did any of these methods or programs work for yous? Did you notice some other way to go your production key? Allow me know over on Twitter.

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