How To Find & Transfer Windows Product Activation License Key

[@mikesunboxing]

Cheap Windows 10/11 Office/ Steam & Gaming Keys available from affiliate links: www.premiumcdkeys.com/mikesunboxing Discount code: MIKESUNBOXING 7.5% Off

[@mikeyfoofoo]

Dig the content. I appreciate the M$ key tip. It's interesting you have the Superman neon sign but your haircut vibes Lex Luther. ; )

[@mikesunboxing]

haha yes that is a good point actually :-)

[@shaneeslick]

PPS: Love these Educational videos for not so everyday tasks

[@mikesunboxing]

thanks appreciate that

[@shaneeslick]

G'day Mike, Thanks for showing how to uninstall product keys, that was something I have wondered about but could not find an instruction for. For Activation Keys I use Belarc Advisor, it's free, doesn't set of Windows Security & gives you all the PC Hardware Specs + Software Licence Keys for every installed program. When I get an older PC once tested working I will run Belarc & save the Activation Keys to a Notepad, then go download the Drivers for all OS & Store them in on My Driver Archive HDD. Then if something goes wrong it makes it really easy to get back up & running using a USB thumbdrive.

[@mikesunboxing]

yeah belarc is another good option to get the same results

[@luckyboy8v]

Belarc doesn't show the actual Windows key. It shows different key than the key i bought from Microsoft.

[@shaneeslick]

G'day @@luckyboy8v that is interesting so thanks for letting me know, I personally have not had a problem with Belarc with all mine correct using it, I mainly use it to get OS W7 & prior when they weren't BIOS Embedded so need to type it in during install plus Activate or else you get locked out, plus for used PCs that are listed with MS programs like Office etc. I would be interested to know if Belarc & the Powershell way Mike showed here give you different results? Bit late at night for me now so during the week I'll also try some of mine like my ASRock Fatality which I mentioned in another comment as having the exact same key as the Show Key example Mike used here in this video to see if I get any that vary from Belarc results.

[@luckyboy8v]

@@shaneeslick Yes. The Powershell also shows the same key like Belarc and several other apps like EaseUS key finder but it's not the key i've bought from Microsoft. This is valid for Microsoft Office 2021 key too. I think Microsoft has some protection or encryption. Or maybe this is for Retail license only because i didn't enter the keys in Windows or Microsoft Office. When i enter in the OS and Office with my email and pass Windows and Office are activated automatically.

[@honahwikeepa2115]

I bought a 2015 re-conmisioned office HP Z440 that had Windows 10 embedded in the bios. I recently added an HP Turbo pci-e nvme adaptor and a Gen 4 HP nvme. Done a fresh install and the speed was impressive. I have a Digital Licence but want to find the actual key if it exists. Thank you for the information 👍🏾

[@mikesunboxing]

hope you find one although i don't think there will be one, most likely a bios rom activation for a HP machine

[@Jules_Diplopia]

Hi Mike, Just the info I needed. I popped over to the PremiumCDKeys page, and the keys that are 4 euros are OEM, whilst an actual Retail key is 11 euros. Out of curiosity, what would you expect the difference to be between the 2. I am assuming that the Retail key would allow multiple activations, i.e. when changing hardware etc. Whilst I would be concerned that an OEM key might tie itself to your existing hardware.

[@mikesunboxing]

are you looking at the wndows 10 or 11 keys? the 11 keys are more expensive but you can use the 10 keys to also activate 11. the OEM key is locked to the installed hardware and the retail keys often allow reactivation with different hardware, although this is a strict rule and depending on the parts and the windows install and microsoft account used it had be a slightly different expeexperience

[@kardoxfabricanus7590]

Hey I was wondering if this applies to windows 7 and if not how would I activate an old windows 7 computer and get it updated and then transition it to windows 10? Would my computer be potentially too old to transition to windows 10? How would I find out and what would I do to save as much of the data in it as possible?

[@mikesunboxing]

it might work with 7 worth giving it a try. not sure if your pc will be okay though as i have no idea what spec your pc is

[@nemanjagrujicic98891]

Great video Mike!

[@mikesunboxing]

thanks appreciate it

[@raven1378]

you dont have to do that anymore in windows 10 or 11. just sign in to your MS account and you're good to go

[@mikesunboxing]

that isn't always the case but i understand what you are saying

[@Gzone241]

hi great information on windows product key very usefull tool :)

[@mikesunboxing]

thanks for watching

[@uglybob7505]

Some great knowledge dropped on us there, thanks Mike and Kath.

[@mikesunboxing]

yeah it is handy stuff to know

[@tomdfrog]

Thanks! Any additional steps or gotchas if like many your original license was Win7? Most of my office PCs started out at Win7 licenses which were upgraded to Win10. They were Retail or System Builder Win7, not OEM supplied, as out PCs are all old Macs running BootCamp. I have always had serious fights trying to move the license to a new machine as an upgrade for the user. Sometimes I get it to move, some times it won't. And figuring out the M$ account it might be tied to (even though we do not use M$ accounts for anything) muddies.

[@mikesunboxing]

like i said if the licence is from a big windows push to a new OS like we had from 7/8 to 10 the digital key will likely be the generic install key that activates via the union of the key with the hardware and a microsoft account. that is why i like using premiumcdkeys, because if i can't get a decent key extracted £3 gets me a new one

[@PointingLasersAtAircraft]

This is a very helpful video.

[@mikesunboxing]

Glad you think so!

[@Senrab46]

Great tutorial. I did similar end of 2023 plus rechkd emails from premiumcdkeys. In the first example you showed the key (which alarmed me lol) but dont understand the note attached. Was that not a usable key? Luckily for me i had upgraded our laptop from win7 to 10 b4 it died of bios chip failure and had retrieved key, but now wondering if can be used🤔 ah kids have their keys attached to their ms accts courtesy of premiumcdkeys. Thanks Mike and Kath 🐈👍

[@mikesunboxing]

the key that was shown is a generic windows 10 to windows 11 upgrade or install key. the ms account is what sort of validates the "key" with the free upgrade versions the activation is a three way validation, the generic key, the physical hardware profile key and the microsoft account info

[@Senrab46]

@@mikesunboxing Thanks Mike, I hadn't realised such a generic key existed. Laptop was free upgrades but on my account. Will try it but no sweat if need new at

[@WilliamAndrewPhilipBodie]

This maybe something i never will need. but it's good to know and have (this video). if it comes up. Thanks for sharing the info 😀

[@mikesunboxing]

You bet!

[@idlebrain4073]

I have a question. If some activation keys built into BIOS, should it automatically activate windows if we do a format and reinstallation of windows? Like formating windows, putting another OS and then again coming back to windows kind of scenario.

[@mikesunboxing]

yes that is the theory

[@ZenAndPsychedelicHealingCenter]

It's tied to your Microsoft account, rather than the BIOS. Even when tied to the BIOS, you can activate with a Microsoft activation script for free.

[@johnstancliff7328]

Thanks Mike! didn't even know this app existsed!

[@mikesunboxing]

handy tool and seems very popular

[@vincentnavea6999]

thank you for this tutorial

[@mikesunboxing]

thanks for watching

[@PapaMav]

Thank you Mike.

[@mikesunboxing]

thanks James

[@Little-bird-told-me]

I kid you not I searched this topic yesterday and now youtube is serving me this video ! By the way I got both the key on my laptop 1) _Installed Key_ and 2) _OEM key_ . what does that mean?

[@mikesunboxing]

Hope it was useful

[@magnusnilsson9792]

Super video, I will definitely share this. :D

[@mikesunboxing]

thanks that is really kind of you

[@Raintiger88]

Thanks, Mike👍

[@mikesunboxing]

You are welcome!

[@notjustforhackers4252]

Meanwhile in Linux.... Its galling people are still paying for Windows so Microsoft to then monetise their data and push adds. Good video.

[@tlwatts88]

Thanks! 👍

[@mikesunboxing]

No problem! thanks for stopping by and leaving a comment

[@shaneeslick]

PS: Mike, 🤔While I can't rattle them off at will that Key at 2:15 Show Key Plus says is embedded on your Motherboard triggered my brain, Turns out I have an ASRock Fatal1ty Z77Professional board that I bought 2nd hand a few+ years ago with the EXACT same Key for W10 Activation, NGL it 😲freaked me out a bit. When I got the Mobo Bundle I added an SSD & did W10 "I do not have a product Key" install letting it Auto Activate once connected to the internet. I'm not Trolling, I'll send an email with screen photos to the channel mailbox.

[@mikesunboxing]

a lot of oems and even microsoft themselves use the generic install key which sometimes will activate some systems as well, especially if they have at some point upgraded like from 7 or 8 to 10

[@bazwillrun]

I have just got a Minisforum mini PC with Windows 11 Home installed , what key do i need to make it Windows 11 Pro ? all this OEM, Retail etc just confuses me..thanks

[@mikesunboxing]

I would maybe try a windows 10 pro retail key, that should work but check with premium cd keys to make sure otherwise a windows 11 pro retail key should work

[@jjohnson71958]

love the background wallpaper where can i find it?

[@mikesunboxing]

The mikesunboxing wallpaper on the desktop or the fake red bricks? The red brick is from b&q in the Uk and the desktop wallpaper is on our discord

[@jjohnson71958]

@@mikesunboxing can i get the links for both

[@mikesunboxing]

@jjohnson71958 www.diy.com/departments/tanlay-dark-red-brick-effect-brick-smooth-wallpaper/3663602559702_BQ.prd

[@jjohnson71958]

@@mikesunboxing no.. the circuitboard wallpaper

[@mikesunboxing]

@@jjohnson71958 join the discord and you can get it there

[@deepak22584]

Hey man help me Recent i upgraded my old laptop with hdd to ssd My old windows 10 was a genuine OS but the new win 11 which is installed by the local shop technician is a pirared windows he probably activated it by a KMS tool In setting it shows activated but running slrmgr command it shows windows is activated by a sw or tool like KMS named or whatever I just want to know is it safe to use if not can i get back my old genuine windows Now what can i do 😭

[@deepak22584]

Although he said that your old windows 10 is inside your internal harddrive with a bootable partition But now i am seeing that the old windows 10 drive is not bootable , but the windows 10 files and folders are still there Is there a method to find the product key inside the windows files and folders???

[@mikesunboxing]

difficult to say really, some companies actually have genuine access to a kms server or bulk licensing plan so i wouldn;t immediately jump to any conclusions or panic. ulitimatley if you are concerned with the install, you could wipe it and do a fresh install and maybe buy a new cheap windows key, at least then you know exactly what is going on with your system

[@deepak22584]

@@mikesunboxing ok thanks for your response

[@Rayu25Demon]

i have a retail key i used it in 3 free dos laptops with windows 8/8.1/10/11.

[@kienhwengtai8113]

Most keys are baked into the BIOS. Retail keys are the best ones to have.

[@mikesunboxing]

i agree

[@fragalot]

I get that same 3V66T key on all my PCs but I'm not using a Microsoft account. I did in the past but i only used it on one PC, not all at the same time. I used different windows 8 product keys to upgrade to Win10 and 11. One of my PCs is still on Win10 since it's not "compadible" but I wish I could find the ACTUAL product key and not the same 3V66T key i keep seeing.

[@mikesunboxing]

if you manually entered a key you should be able to read it back, if it was otherwise electronically or bios activated you don't actually have a key in the normal sense of the word, you have a id based on hardware, user details and generic key

[@fragalot]

@@mikesunboxing The only time I enter in the activation key is on a new PC build when there's a new motherboard involved, but all the product keys i have are (apparently) retail. I thought these were OEMs since the original product keys I got weren't directly from Microsoft. I originally bought 2 Win8 product keys. I forget from where, but it was from an OEM PC maker that had a discount deal going on, which is why I assumed these were OEM keys. I got these back when Windows 8 was new, and both were used with the same MS account. One was upgraded to 8.1, and then to Win10 but remained on 10 since it's old and not compatible with Win11. Now that old PC is running Linux as a NAS. The other couldn't be upgraded for 8.1 for whatever reason, so I was given a new product key by Microsoft that worked and is now on Win10, but also the hardware isn't compatible for 11. In 2020 I built a whole new PC and i bought a new product key off of eBay to activate it and it worked fine running Win10, and now Win11. A couple years later I upgraded that PC with a new CPU, and GPU (same mobo) and I'm using that PC right now as my main rig. With the left over parts I bought a new Mobo and RAM to build another PC with the old GPU and CPU, and used that Win8 product key that couldn't update to Win8.1, to activate Windows 11 on it and it worked fine. Yet ALL THREE of my PCs that have windows running all have the same "default" 3V66T product key. All of them are "retail" GO FIG.

[@fragalot]

@@mikesunboxing I do still have the actual product keys.. but since they were windows 8 keys, and one being i think for win10 they get changed when used on 10 or 11. It's really confusing. I thought there was a way to see, or look up, what the original key is rather than seeing this generic 3V66T key.

[@fragalot]

4:25 no there isn't. It's not showing your activation key anywhere, at best it shows you the a partial key. The blocked out section only shows URLs to the servers that activated your copy of windows, the channel of your key (OEM or Retail) and various ID codes for activation, application, PID, and installation. There is no full product code shown (at least not for me when i use that command.) It's largely meaningless information unless you're customer support at Microsoft where they can double check this data on their side. Also that rearm count is 1001, not 1. It says this on all my PCs that apparently have this same generic 3V66T product code, 1001; you'd think it would match the number of PCs I have.

[@saeedaqureshi786]

nice

[@MohamedElsayed-ph9qy]

4:30 its 1000 for me what does it mean?

[@mikesunboxing]

no reactivations i think

[@luckyboy8v]

I've tried Belarc, EaseUS and other free tools and they all show a key which is not the key i've bought from Microsoft. I don't know why?

[@mikesunboxing]

did you physically enter the key yourself on the PC you are using and not upgraded it or reinstalled ?

[@luckyboy8v]

@@mikesunboxing No. I just entered my email and password and Windows 11 was activated.

[@luckyboy8v]

@@mikesunboxing No. I just entered my email and password and Windows 11 was activated.

[@lorderectus1849]

Digits you mean characters Mike!

[@mikesunboxing]

lol what did i say?

[@PapaMav]

How are you getting along Oh Lord?

[@lorderectus1849]

I’m fine Papamav just scraping by until I can get employed again. How’s things with you?

[@lorderectus1849]

You said digits Mike instead of characters lol 😂

[@BeastGohan_61]

can anyone give me advices to fix my keyboard key it work i mean there i no mechanical problems i think it' from the driver or something cause sometimes the key keep spamming or when a click on it it doesn't fonction or it takes time

[@BeastGohan_61]

i tried everything and i watched so many videos and no results

[@mikesunboxing]

This is maybe easier to fix or at least advise if we can ask more questions and get direct answers, so feel free to join our Discord chat and we can go over it in more detail discord.gg/XtBTGQ6BDu Agree to the rules by clicking the emoji and you will get access to the rest of the Discord channels

[@BeastGohan_61]

@@mikesunboxing ty

[@galimirnund6543]

Thanks for the video. I have 2 PC's that I want to upgrade and was worried about this very thing. I hate MS with every bone in my body. I should not have to go through all these hoops to use a product I bought LEGALLY!! That satya guy can go straight to hell!!!

[@UltimateTechHub]

Great video Mike, I bet most people would just buy a cheap Windows Product instead of trying to go through the steps. And of course I use premiumcdkeys.com for my keys as well but you already know that from my recent Cheap Windows Keys in 2024. Thanks Mike! Cheers!

[@mikesunboxing]

cheers Mike! with premiumcdkeys being so cheap it is sometimes cheaper and quicker to just buy a key, rather than faff around with software, i must admit i am a bit lazy at times and just buy a darn key

[@UltimateTechHub]

@mikesunboxing I'm exactly the same way. 4 or 5 dollars for a key saves 15 to 20 minutes of messing around with software and sometimes it doesn't even work

[@ZenAndPsychedelicHealingCenter]

Or, just use a Microsoft activation script, which is legal and free.

[@mikesunboxing]

yeah funny we did a video on that recently

[@repairman2be250]

Even 3 UK Dollars is to much to pay for Windows.

[@mikesunboxing]

yeah especially with ubuntu 22 and mint being free

[@repairman2be250]

@@mikesunboxing I am sarcastic here. I use Micro$ and Linux OS's virtualised. More and more I find Micro$ being like Rocket Man from North Korea. Forgot to thank you for the video as you showed things I did not know before.

[@notpoliticallycorrect1303]

We don't have Dollars in the UK, we have Pounds.

[@repairman2be250]

@@notpoliticallycorrect1303 I know. At the time of writing I could not figure out the pound key.

Do you watch Brian at Britec ? oKay you are using power shell . a big plus Can you do that on the DOS command ?

[@mikesunboxing]

you should be able to run it as admin in a command prompt

@@mikesunboxing You are correct you have to gain "elevated PRIVILEGE " to gain access to gain access a higher security level in the OS

[@KidsCorner-ru5ik]

mskeydeals

[@mikesunboxing]

much to expensive there sorry