By Miguel Leiva-Gomez for MakeTechEasier.com

Losing your product key is something that happens to the best of us, especially when you’re as accident-prone as I am and misplace the box your Windows CD came in. Many people think about calling Microsoft tech support to resolve this issue, only to realize that they’re hitting a brick wall and wasting time. Instead of ruffling through tons of different CD/DVD cases you’ve kept over the years, you might decide to purchase a new product key or an entirely new license of Windows. Don’t make that mistake and keep that debit card in your wallet! You can use the registry to fetch the product key for your particular Windows license only if you use an older version of Windows, but Vista/7 need another procedure.

Where’d The Product Key Go?

Up until Windows XP, the product key was always stored in the registry, within the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE key, under the “ProductID” key in “Windows” under “SOFTWARE”, making the path something like: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREWindowsProductID. Unfortunately, that’s not the case since Windows Vista. It seems that Microsoft wanted to make it difficult for you to find your product key, so that you end up buying another license when you lose one. You don’t have to do this if you use Magic JellyBean KeyFinder. Although it sounds like something fishy, it is a legitimate application that scans your Windows installation for your product key.
Oh, and here’s the other thing: The Windows “ProductID” doesn’t show the key anymore, but shows a special ID to help Microsoft identify and distinguish between one Windows installation and another. This is used to prevent two Windows installations from using Windows Update, since it’s against the company’s policy to use one Windows installation on more than one computer.

Article Continued Here

This excerpt is shared with permission from maketecheasier.com.

About Make Tech Easier

Make Tech Easier offers computer tips and tricks that will change you to a computer geek (even without you knowing it). Topics covered here include troubleshooting your computer, optimizing operating system performance (be it Windows, Mac or Linux), simplifying tasks, software review and plenty of cool stuff. If you think that computer technology is only for geeks, then they aspire to change your thinking.

• 
• 
• 

1. Maketecheasier.com: 5 Excellent Tools To Take Screenshots in Windows
   
   In case you are looking for an effective screenshot app that saves your time and serves its purpose, find below the top 5 tools in this category....


2. Maketecheasier.com: What Happens to Win 7 After Changing a Motherboard
   
   I’ve been hearing the same question again and again lately from people who are going to replace their motherboards: What’s going to happen to my Windows 7 installation? And...


3. Maketecheasier.com: 4 Reasons Why Windows UAC Is Useless
   
   If you use Windows Vista or 7, you know how annoying it is to have to approve everything every application does on your computer....