How to find Windows 8 product key?

Question

Does anyone know of a way to get the product key that was used to activate Windows 8?

Bonus points for an updated algorithm to extract the product key from the registry key.

While I realize this question has been asked for other versions of Windows, it looks like like many of the older activation key detection tools do not work with Windows 8. Most seem to return strings of the right form (e.g. 5 x 5 characters) but they do not match the actual product key.

UPDATE : This question was originally asked when Windows 8 was first released. It seems most of the tools now handle Win8 properly . . .

score 11 · Answer 1 · edited Nov 12 '14 at 18:34

11

I have been using Nirsoft's ProduKey. It works with Windows 8.

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ProduKey is a small utility that displays the ProductID and the CD-Key of Microsoft Office (Microsoft Office 2003, Microsoft Office 2007), Windows (Including Windows 7 and Windows Vista), Exchange Server, and SQL Server installed on your computer.

edited Nov 12 '14 at 18:34

nixda

27,634

answered May 16 '13 at 20:20

Erik

264

score 8 · Answer 2 · edited Jan 31 '13 at 02:52

8

A utility has been released over at mydigitallife.info for this purpose

Windows 8 Product Key Viewer works for both version of Windows as 32-bit and 64-bit and it can

Decodes Windows Product Keys.
Decodes product keys with N character.

edited Jan 31 '13 at 02:52

Sathyajith Bhat

62,374

answered Nov 25 '12 at 11:44

rdfm

156

score 4 · Answer 3 · answered Oct 29 '12 at 20:31

4

Recover-Keys seems to be updated to work with Windows 8. It has always been my go to Utility for recovering Product keys.

answered Oct 29 '12 at 20:31

Jared Tritsch

3,180

score 2 · Answer 4 · answered Feb 12 '15 at 13:30

The free OEM Product Key Tool from NeoSmart Technologies is probably the most straight-forward way of doing this. Just run the standalone exe and it'll come up in the main dialog like this:

NeoSmart product key tool

Unlike other tools, it pulls the key from the ACPI tables, meaning it'll get the embedded Windows 8 product key even if Windows has been formatted.

Disclosure: I'm the author of this tool

score 1 · Answer 5 · answered Mar 28 '13 at 22:40

1

Yes there is another program SterJo Key Finder not only for Windows 8, but also can recover the new Office 2013 key

answered Mar 28 '13 at 22:40

gras45

11
1

score 0 · Accepted Answer · answered Nov 12 '14 at 19:40

0

The freeware Magical Jelly Bean has also been updated to handle Windows 8 keys

answered Nov 12 '14 at 19:40

ernie

6,378

How to find Windows 8 product key?

6 Answers6

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