How to use Windows Terminal to recover your Windows Product Key

While newer computers, now seem to store the Windows Product Key in the Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI). It does no harm to make a note of your Product Key before you wipe your computer and reinstall Windows. So in this video, we take a look at how from the Windows Terminal (PowerShell) we can recover our Windows Product Key.

Note: The Windows Product Key is only necessary to activate Windows. However, it is possible to run an un-activated version of Windows which will be missing key features and important updates. Then with Windows installed on your computer you can purchase a product key through Windows online. 

Quick reference notes:

  • From the Windows desktop, right click on the Windows button, and from the quick menu choose Windows Terminal

Note: The names PowerShell and Windows Terminal now seem to be used interchangeably, but basically refer to the same thing. It’s also worth noting, that you should not need to open a Windows Terminal with administrators privileges in order to run this command.

  • When the Terminal window opens type the following:
(Get-WmiObject -query 'select * from SoftwareLicensingService').OA3xOriginalProductKey
  • When you press Enter on your Keyboard, the Product Key for your computer will be displayed. 

Note: There are two types of Activation method, a Product Key and a Digital license. If your computer is using a digital license the command above will not display a key. This is because the license key has been digitally registered to the hardware you are using. So if you need to do a clean install of Windows and you have a Digital license, when reinstalling Windows select the option “I am Reinstalling Windows on this PC‘ and your computer will use the license its already been issued by Microsoft.

  • To gracefully close the Terminal Window type:
exit
  • When you press Enter on your keyboard the Terminal window will close.

Reference Material:

Microsoft article – What is PowerShell
Microsoft article – Find your Windows product key
Amazon store – Purchase Windows product key
Wikipedia article – Powershell

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