text: Because the product keys are encrypted, you cannot simply go into the registry and retrieve it like you could in earlier versions of Windows. You will need a utility program to extract the product id from your registry. One such tool is the Magical Jelly Bean Keyfinder. Another is the Belarc Advisor. I am certain there are others on the market as well but we will focus on the use of these two for the purposes of this article.\n\n    * The Magical Jelly Bean Keyfinder is a freeware utility that retrieves your Product Key (CD key) used to install Windows or Office from your registry. It has the options to copy the key to clipboard, save it to a text file, or print it for safekeeping. It works on Windows 95, 98, ME, NT4, 2000, XP, Server 2003, Office 97 and Office XP. Unfortunately, it does not appear to support Office 2000.\n\n      The Magical Jelly Bean Keyfinder is amazingly simple to use. The file itself, keyfinder.exe, is small—only 257 KB. There is no installation program. Just run the program, either from the command line or by double-clicking it from the folder you downloaded it to. When you do, your product key will appear as shown. (I changed my product key in this image for security reasons.)\n    * The Belarc Advisor is a freeware utility that builds a detailed profile of your installed software and hardware and then displays the results in your Web browser. None of this information is sent to the internet. It is all stored privately on your computer.\n\n      The information displayed includes, but is not limited to:\n         1. Operating System type and build\n         2. Motherboard brand and serial number\n         3. Installed drives, CD and fixed, including brand and capacity\n         4. Installed Microsoft hotfixes\n         5. Installed Microsoft software licenses and some keys\n         6. List of all installed software \n\nNOTE: It should be noted that I have received at least one report of the Magical Jelly Bean Keyfinder returning an incorrect key. I have never had that happen to me and I have used it many time to recover keys from the registries of clients computers. The Belarc Advisor does have this footnote on its results page regarding Windows keys: "This may be the manufacturer's factory installed product key rather than yours." I believe this may be the cause of the MJB error as well.\n\nThat’s all there is to it. Once you recover the key, write down the number and then you can reinstall your software, or place the it in a database where you won’t lose it.\n\nEDIT: 10:38AM, March 10, 2006\n\nYou may want to try Insaneware Keyfinder:\n\nhttp://www.insaneware.com/