My Problem
Minor problem with upgrading to Windows 10 from Windows 8.1 on a new laptop. For reasons which I shall not bore you with the Microsoft account login details were thrown away. So at the moment the laptop is an expensive brick. As there is no data on the machine the plan is to reinstall Windows 10. The problem is; what is the product key for the Windows 8.1 OS, so that a free install can be made? I have successfully used the following Comand Prompt string to recover the key. Will a reinstall of Windows 10 solve the access problem?The following article is courtesy of The Windows Club.
How to find Windows Product Key using Command Prompt
When you enter, register and activate your copy of Windows, using a Retail key, the information is stored in the Windows Registry. Users of OEM computers may have noticed that, since a couple of years, the manufacturers have stopped pasting their COA or Certificate of Authenticity sticker, which displayed the Windows product key to the machine anymore. Now this key is embedded in the BIOS/UEFI.Find Windows Product Key
It is to be noted that a Retail product license is tied to the person whereas the OEM product key is tied to the machine, as per Microsoft Windows Desktop licensing terms. In this post, we will see how to find Windows Product Key using Command Prompt or PowerShell, from BIOS or Registry. It works for Retail & OEM licenses too.Recover Windows product key using Command Prompt
From the WinX Menu in Windows 10 / 8.1, open an elevated command prompt window, type the following command and hit Enter*:
wmic path softwarelicensingservice get OA3xOriginalProductKey
Your Windows product key will be displayed.
*NOTE: the "O" in OA3 is capital letter O and not a zero 0
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