hi guys
in this step-by-step tutorial
I'll show you how you can retrieve your
Windows Product Key from the computer BIOS
I mean either the Windows 8 Product Key
or the Windows 8.1 Product Key
or the latest,
which at the time of this recording
is the Windows 10 Product Key
whichever version of Windows
is pre-installed with your computer,
that will be the product key
that's hard-coded into the computer BIOS
this is the Genuine Microsoft Product Key,
which you can activate with Microsoft yourself and
is unique to just that computer.
So what is this tutorial all about?
in the past when
you purchase the computer with Microsoft
Windows pre-installed, there was a
sticker of authenticity somewhere on the
case of the computer, which had five
blocks of alphanumeric characters
printed on it like this..
..or this
and for those of you who are now scrambling for a pen
there's no need,
the codes have been engineered for this video
and they are invalid,
so you don't need to copy them down.
these days the stickers have been
replaced with just an official windows
logo sticker
and since the retirement of the stickers,
the Windows Product Activation key has been embedded into a
microchip within the computer itself
known as the BIOS, and if that's not
enough, the Product Activation Key is
also not visible in the BIOS User Interface
so the consumer has no way of copying it
the main reason for this drastic change
by Microsoft is to minimize the number
of keys being compromised
that's handy for when the stick of fades with age
or becomes damaged through wear and tear
otherwise the end user has zero benefit
from this inconvenient change
if a re-installation of Windows was needed,
by any means other than from the recovery
build, which is provided by the computer
hardware vendor, such as Dell, HP, IBM
which was usually also loaded with all
their free stuff and trial software
you have to go and buy another copy of Windows
now there are a lot of utility
programs out there which will retrieve
product keys from your computer for backup purposes
which will allow you to reactivate the
did you ever need to reinstall the
programs and to be fair, most of them
programs i've tried have worked well but
all with one caveat,
when i tried to use
the recovered Product Key for Windows
every single time, the Windows Activation Key failed.
This is because the computer
hardware vendor, assigned the Product Key
during the installation of Windows at the factory.
The product key was asigned
from their Key Management Server, which
they are distributing under license with Microsoft
now to reuse the same key you
would need to be authenticated by their
Key Management Server which is unlikely
that you have access to.
Now at this point, i should mention,
in case you haven't already noticed
the key provided by the
computer hardware vendor's
Key Management Server
is not the same key which is
embedded in your computer systems BIOS
so what we need to do is extract the
product key from the computer BIOS, which
is unique only to that single computer
and you can then use it to activate directly with Microsoft
Here's how you do it,
go to this link
and download the utility
you do not need to install it
it's a single executable file just
double-click it and run it with
administrator rights
Yes it is safe, otherwise it wouldn't be
on my channel. If for any reason the link
is unavailable please let me know
and i shall make available from a different source
so go to this link and download
the OEMKey
its a single file, once it's down
just double click it
it will then launch the Windows 7 Product Key tool.
You now have your Windows Product Key
thanks for watching
I hope this has been informative for you and
I'd like to thank you for viewing
if you like this production, please click the like button
and if you find this channel useful, please subscribe
any questions comments or
suggestions for future videos
please add a comment and
I shall endeavor to reply as soon as possible