3 Ways to extract the Windows 8 /10 Product key from the BIOS/UEFI

Sometimes you need your Windows 8 product key, in versions prior to Windows 8 it was quite easy, you can only look at the label of the product label on your computer. But since Windows 8 Microsoft has made a change. Most likely, you no longer have a product label. Instead, they register the product key in their BIOS / UEFI. This is a good feature because now when you reinstall Windows 8, your product key is automatically recovered from the BIOS / UEFI. But recovering the product key on its own was a bit more complicated. But fortunately, we can still extract it. If you can not start Windows, see the last part of Method 1 that will describe a method that does not require an installed version of Windows.

1- ShowKeyPlusUWP

This is probably a bit easier. You can find the tool here: https://github.com/Superfly-Inc/ShowKeyPlus/releases/download/ShowkeyPlus/ShowKeyPlus.zip

Extract the ZIP file and run ShowKeyPlus.exe This will show your installed key along with your OEM Key if present.

2- RW-EVERYTHING

Download RW-EVERYTHING. The download can be found here: http://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/rweverything.html (Link updated 17-02-2016)  the easiest way is to choose the RWPortable version. Make sure you choose the right one for your version of Windows. When downloaded extract the ZIP file. And execute “RW.exe”

Click on the ACPI Table button at the top. After that click on the MSDM tab. Your BIOS’s product key is at the bottom.

If you are for some reason unable to boot up windows, we can try another way. This involves HirensBootCD which can be downloaded here: http://www.hirensbootcd.org/download/ this will download an .ISO which you will need to burn onto a CD or alternatively make a bootable USB. I am going to assume you already know how to Burn an image to a CD.  If not you can have a look here: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-gb/windows7/burn-a-cd-or-dvd-from-an-iso-file

Now boot off the CD/USB and select Mini Windows XP, this will boot a minimal version of Windows XP right of your CD. After this you can insert a USB with the RWportable 32 bit version on it. And Extract the product key the same way as explained above. If you don’t know how to boot from a CD/USB have a look here: http://lifehacker.com/5991848/how-to-boot-from-a-cd-or-usb-drive-on-any-pc

3- Get_win8key

Christian Korneck made a script that can be run from within windows, this will also extract the Product code from within the Firmware. You can get the necessary files on Github:

https://github.com/christian-korneck/get_win8key#files

Download the get_win8key.exe and save it on an easy to remember location like C:\Win8key now open up a PowerShell Shell. In windows 8 you can easily find this by going to start and just type PowerShell.

Now type:

& "C:\win8key\get_win8key.exe" 

(Including the & sign)

Powershell product code windows 8

I hope this helped, if you have any suggestions feel free to leave comment.