This post shows students and new users steps to find their Windows 11 product (activation) key. Microsoft uses a product key to verify the authenticity of a Windows license. To abide by Microsoft Windows’ licensing terms, a full (retail) version of Windows should only be installed and used on one computer.
The activation (product) key is there to ensure that Windows is not being installed on more than one computer at the same time. That’s why everytime you installed Windows, you’ll be asked for a product key to activate it. If the product key is being used on other computers, you may be allowed to activate it and Windows will not work until activated.
You can transfer your full (retail) license to another computer and will still be able to get support from Microsoft, but you will have to deactivate and uninstall the product key on other computers before you’re allowed to reuse it.
Before you deactivate and uninstall Windows product key, you may want to take notes of the key if you’ve forgotten it. With the key handy, you can then uninstall it from other computers so you can reinstall.
There are multiple ways one can find their Windows 11 product key. Below we’ll show you how to find your product key in Windows 11
How to find Windows 11 product key via command prompt
You can use the command prompt to find your Windows 11 product key. Simply run the command prompt as administrator from the Start menu.
Then run the commands below to display your product key.
wmic path SoftwareLicensingService get OA3xOriginalProductKey
How to find Windows 11 product key via PowerShell
If you prefer PowerShell, then search and open PowerShell as administrator from the Start menu.
Then run the commands below to view your product key.
powershell "(Get-WmiObject -query ‘select * from SoftwareLicensingService’).OA3xOriginalProductKey"
Or run the commands below if the one above doesn’t work.
Get-Wmiobject SoftwareLicensingService | Select OA3xOriginalProductKey
How to find Windows 11 product key via the registry editor
You can also view your Windows product key via Windows registry. Search and open the Registry Editor app from the Start menu.
When the registry editor opens, navigate to the path below. Or simply copy and paste it into the navigation path.
Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\SoftwareProtectionPlatform
You should see the BackupProductKeyDefault item with the product key shown.
That should do it!
Conclusion:
This post showed you how to find Windows 11 product key. If you find any error above or have something to add, please use the comment form below.
