How to find your Windows and Office product key

Two common situations: you are about to reinstall and want to keep the key, or you are buying a second-hand computer and want to check what licence it has. Here is how it is done and where the limits are.

Method 1: the command line

Open the command prompt as an administrator and enter:

wmic path SoftwareLicensingService get OA3xOriginalProductKey

If a 25-character code appears, this is the OEM key written into the UEFI/BIOS by the computer's manufacturer. On newer versions of Windows 11 the wmic command may be missing — in that case use PowerShell:

(Get-CimInstance -ClassName SoftwareLicensingService).OA3xOriginalProductKey

An empty result is not an error. It only means that the machine has no built-in OEM key — for example with a Retail licence or with a digital licence.

Method 2: checking the licence status

This command does not show the whole key, but it tells you the most important things — what type of licence it is and the last five characters:

slmgr /dli

In the window you will see a description such as RETAIL channel, OEM_DM channel or VOLUME_KMSCLIENT channel. For more detail:

slmgr /dlv

And to find out whether the activation is permanent:

slmgr /xpr

Method 3: the Office key

For Office, the full key is not stored on the system after activation. You can only see the last five characters, through the command line in the Office folder. For 64-bit Office on 64-bit Windows:

cd "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office16"
cscript ospp.vbs /dstatus

If the folder does not exist, try C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office16. The result shows the version, the licence channel and the last five characters of the key.

Why some programs show BBBBB-BBBBB-BBBBB-BBBBB-BBBBB

Free “key readers” often return exactly this string. It is not your key — it is the generic key that Windows writes into the registry when the machine has been activated with a digital licence, linked to the hardware or to a Microsoft account rather than to a key you typed in. In that case the original key is simply not kept on the machine.

If you bought the key online, the most reliable place is the confirmation email or the invoice. That is why you should always keep that email.

When you actually need the key

• Reinstalling on the same machine — usually you do not need it. The digital licence is restored automatically once you connect to the internet.
• Transferring to another computer — you need the key and the licence must be Retail. We have described the whole process in this article.
• Replacing the motherboard — the activation is lost; see the solutions for activation errors.
• A software audit at a company — here the important document is the invoice, not the key itself.

Be careful with tools from the internet

There are many small programs that promise to “extract” the key. Some of them are honest, others come bundled with additional software. Since the three commands above work without installing anything, there is no reason to take that risk.

If you bought a licence from us and have lost the email, write to us with your order number — we will send the key again.