Where is the Windows 10 product key stored in the registry?

Windows 10 stores the registered product key in several different places including the Registry. To be more specific, Windows 10 stores the product in the DigitalProductId registry value. This is applicable to both Windows 10 Home and Windows 10 Pro editions. If you are scouring through the registry to find the product key, follow the steps shown below to make things easier. You will have the product key in no time.

Steps to Find Windows 10 Product Key in Registry

To locate the product key in the registry, these the steps you should follow.

1. Right-click on the Start menu.
2. Select the “Search” option.
3. Search for “Registry Editor” and open it.
4. In the registry, copy and paste the below path in the address bar and press “Enter“.
   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion
5. On the right panel, find the “DigitalProductId” value.
   
   

That is it. DigitalProductId value stores your Windows 10 product key. Double-click on the value and you will see the encoded license key.

Decode or Decrypt DigitalProductId HEX Value to License Key

DigitalProductId is a binary value. Anything in a binary value is automatically converted into a HEX value. Since we want the product key and not a HEX value, we need to decode the DigitalProductID value. To do that we are going to use a free and open-source portable tool called WinProdKeyFinder.

To decrypt DigitalProductId value, follow the steps shown below.

1. First, open the Registry Editor.
2. Go to the following folder.
   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\
3. Right-click “CurrentVersion” folder and select “Export“.
   
   
4. Name the file anything you want and save it on the desktop.
   
   
5. Close the registry editor.
6. On the desktop, right-click on the .reg file and select “edit“.
   
   
7. In the file, find the “DigitalProductId” value.
   
   
8. Copy the full HEX code along with its value name as shown in the image below.
   
   
9. Next, download WinProdKeyFinder from Github.
10. Open the ZIP file and extract the EXE file to your desktop.
    
    
11. Double-click on the “WinProdKeyFind.exe” to open it.
12. In the app, click on the “Decode DigitalProductID” button.
    
    
13. Press Ctrl + V keyboard shortcut to paste the copied HEX code.
    
    
14. Click on the “Parse DigitalProductId” button.
15. As soon as you press the button, the application will decode the HEX code and shows the Windows 10 product key.
    
    

To copy the product key, click on the “Copy key to clipboard” button. You can paste the copied key in a text file or other document for safekeeping.

Remove Windows 10 Product Key in Registry

These the steps you should follow to clear or remove Windows 10 product key in the registry.

1. Open the Start menu in Windows 10.
2. Search for “Command Prompt“.
3. Right-click on the result and select “Run as administrator“.
4. In the Command Prompt window, type “slmgr –cpky” and press Enter.
5. The product key will be removed and you will see a “Product key from Registry cleared successfully” message.

That is it. It is that simple to remove Windows 10 product key in the registry.

Important note: Don’t delete the DigitalProductId value to remove the product key in the registry. You should always use command show in the above steps.

Digital License vs OEM or Retail Product Key

If you have upgraded from Windows 7 or Windows 8 to Windows 10 and linked your system to a Microsoft account then it is highly likely that you are using a Digital License.

You can check that by opening the Settings app. Open the Settings app and go to the “Update & Security → Activation” page. If it says “Windows is activated with a digital license linked to your Microsoft account” on the right pane then the system is using a digital license key.

In those cases, your system will be registered with a Windows 10 generic product key. As such, the Windows 10 product key you get from the registry is a generic key. A generic license key is only useful for temporary activation and not an alternative for the actual OEM or Retail Windows 10 product key.

That is all. I hope that helps. If you are stuck or need some help, comment below and I will try to help as much as possible.

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