Find a product key using Regedit.
Regedit is the Microsoft Windows registry editing program. Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows NT 4.0 and Windows Millennium store the product key in plain text in the registry. Windows XP and later versions encode the product key in the registry, so you have to use specialized software to decode them. If you are using a version of Windows prior to Windows XP, you can find the product key for Windows using Regedit and no specialized software.
Instructions
1.
Open the "Start" menu and choose "Run."
2.
Type "regedit" into the dialog box. Do not include the quotation marks. Press "Enter" to launch Regedit.
3.
Open the location "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\MIcrosoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ProductKey" in the left side of the Regedit program if you are using Windows 95, Windows 98 or Windows Millennium. Navigate to "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProductID" on Windows NT 4.0 systems.
4.
Copy the value of the key by writing it down or typing it into a file.
5.
Close Regedit by clicking the "X" in the corner of the window.
