If you purchased a new Windows PC preinstalled in recent years (Windows 10, or Windows 8), you may have noticed some changes to the outside of your device.
The biggest noticeable change is the absence of the product key, which was on the Certificate of Authenticity (COA) sticker on computers that had the product pre-installed. Windows 7 or earlier versions of Microsoft operating system.
From Windows 8 onwards, this information is no longer in the COA, but is embedded in the BIOS. So if after formatting you reinstall the same version of Windows that came with it computer your, it should be activated automatically.
If you still want to capture this product key in your operating system, it is easy enough to do so.
Open a PowerShell window and run the following command:
(Get-WmiObject -query 'select * from SoftwareLicensingService'). OA3xOriginalProductKey
If you don't see anything showing up, it means your system doesn't include the Windows key in the BIOS, as is often the case with home computers, devices that use OEM System Builder or those originally sold with a Windows 10 license.
Network administrators who manage licenses using Key Management Services can have information about the computers located on the network using a different set of options for the same PowerShell command.
To see all the details about the current license status of a machine, use the following command:
Get-WMIObject -Class SoftwareLicensingService | Select-Object -Property *
(Be sure to include the asterisk at the end of this command.)
To save the key, click the PowerShell window, drag the mouse pointer over the entire 25 character key, and then right-click.
Although you will not see a dialog box open, the characters you selected have already been copied to the Clipboard. Paste the key into one archive text and save it in a safe place.
