How do I find the product key for Windows 8.1

Anonymous
2013-11-02T17:23:25+00:00

Original title: Product Key

I downloaded Windows 8.1 (free) from the Microsoft web site. My understanding was that in doing so, a new product key would be generated. I do not know where/how to find the new product key. Can someone help me out with this? Was I mistaken and do I use the product key I have for Windows 8?

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Licensing and activation

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  1. Anonymous
    2017-10-18T18:02:04+00:00

    Thanks HairyFool, I ran Produkey as you recommended, and found a BIOS OEM license key that I did not have before. It ends with xxxxx-xxxWMC. Any idea whether this looks like 8.1 Pro key and whether it's HP specific?

    (E.g.  it could be potentially useful for an Acer upgrade from Win10Home to Win10Pro that they mentioned in the article I had linked. If it works, I would end up with running both Win7Pro on the original HP computer and an Acer Win10Pro using this other license... ?)

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  2. Anonymous
    2017-10-18T13:52:02+00:00

    The problem is you are actually running Windows 7 as opposed to the operating system for the key. 7 which knows nothing about BIOS loaded keys is not going to know how to get it.

    I use Produkey from Nirsoft. Running it on my Surface confirms a few points.

    It reads the Windows 8 BIOS key although I am running Windows 10

    The Windows 8 key has been applied as the license key for Internet Explorer as part of the upgrade to 10

    Because Windows 10 uses a digital license system the 10 key is the one generated when you don't enter a key during setup (i.e. a new key is not generated even though it is fully licensed)

    I think your GIGO suggestion is most likely.

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  3. Anonymous
    2017-10-18T12:39:38+00:00

    Thanks for sharing your experience, HairyFool. As you said, all I can do is try then.

    ... but problem is, I have no confidence in that second "key" that got computed by a script I ran is even a valid key at all: it effectively just got a different registry key (DigitalProductId4) and applied a hardcoded transformation to it. This might be garbage-in-garbage-out kind of situation, since I am the one who tried to modify key location (from DigitalProductId to DigitalProductId4) and original script was just using DigitalProductId. So going back to my original question then...

    • What's the best way to try to locate that potentially useful Win 8.1 Pro key without upgrading my Win 7 system? E.g. should I run some key finder on the system itself or try to scan the 8.1 Pro upgrade DVD for it?
    • What software or technique wold you recommend for such a scan?

    I appreciate your answers - very educational!

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  4. Anonymous
    2017-10-18T00:08:29+00:00

    Thank you for the suggestion.Vic!!!

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