If you’re preparing to reinstall a program or an operating system (like a clean install of Windows), you’ll need to find your unique product key or serial number before continuing.
Normally this product key is located on the original install disc, or maybe in your order confirmation email. If you’ve lost your product key, you can often find it in the Windows Registry but this can be difficult, or sometimes even impossible, to do. Many free key finder programs are available to help.
Below are the top 20 free key finder programs. There are also commercial alternatives but we recommend exhausting the options below before paying for one.
1. Belarc Advisor
Belarc Advisor is the standard when it comes to system information software. One small aspect of Belarc Advisor is its ability to extract product keys for many software programs, including the one for Windows.
Advantages include a display of information in your browser window, no adware or toolbars to worry about, and an extensive list of other important computer data.
Finds Keys for Operating Systems: Windows 10, Windows 8 & 8.1, Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2012/2008/2003, Windows XP, Windows 2000, Windows NT, Windows ME, Windows 98, and Windows 95.
Finds Keys for Other Software: Microsoft Office 2013, 2010, (plus all previous versions), Microsoft enterprise products, most programs from Adobe, Nero, Corel, and more, as well as keys for popular video games best free product key finder program.
Try Belarc Advisor for your software and Windows key finding needs before any other program. It’s likely to provide you with the best results.
2. Magical Jelly Bean Keyfinder
The Magical Jelly Bean Keyfinder program is a free utility that retrieves product keys from the registry. It also finds product keys for Microsoft Office programs, along with product keys from many other non-Microsoft programs.
Advantages include very small size, ease of use, instant display of product keys, and multiple product key saving options.
Finds Keys for Operating Systems: Windows 10, Windows 8, Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2003, Windows XP, Windows 2000, Windows ME, Windows 98, and Windows 95.
Finds Keys for Other Software: Microsoft Office 2007, Office 2003, Office XP, and several non-Microsoft programs.
The Magical Jelly Bean Keyfinder website says that this free key finder will find your Office 2010 product key but in fact, it does not, at least as of v2.0.10.13.
3. Winkeyfinder
The Winkeyfinder program is another free utility that retrieves product keys from the Windows registry.
Advantages include small program size, no installation required, and additional features such as the ability to change registered user information.
Finds Keys for Operating Systems: Windows 10, Windows 8, Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP, Windows 2000, Windows ME, and Windows 98.
Finds Keys for Other Software: Microsoft Office 2013, 2010, 2007, 2003, XP, 2000 SP2, and 97.
4. Keyfinder Thing
Keyfinder Thing is another free, easy to use utility that finds product keys and serial numbers hidden in the Windows registry.
Advantages include small program size, nothing to run, and support for a large list of non-Microsoft programs.
Finds Keys for Operating Systems: Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows 2003 Server, Windows XP, Windows 2000, and Windows ME.
Finds Keys for Other Software: Microsoft Office 2007, Office 2003, Office XP, Microsoft Money, Nero, Corel Suite, The Sims, and many more programs.
Keyfinder Thing doesn’t find the right product keys for Windows 10, Windows 8, or Windows NT, even though one may show up in the results.
5. Product Key Finder
The not-so-originally-named Product Key Finder tool is actually a pretty good key finder program.
After executing Product Key Finder, a simple window opens displaying your Windows product key along with other product keys and serial numbers that Product Key Finder can locate.
Finds Keys for Operating Systems: Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008 & 2003, Windows XP, Windows 2000, Windows 98, and Windows NT.
Finds Keys for Other Software: Most Microsoft and Adobe applications, more than 200 in all according to the Product Key Finder website.
Product Key Finder doesn’t find keys in Windows 8 or Windows 10.
6. ProduKey
ProduKey is another completely free and easy to use key finder tool that performs advanced key finder tasks like loading product keys from remote registries.
Finds Keys for Operating Systems: Windows 10, Windows 8, Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP, and Windows 2000.
Finds Keys for Other Software: Microsoft Office 2013, Office 2010, Office 2007, Office 2003, Exchange Server, and SQL Server.
7. Windows Product Key Finder Pro
Gear Box’s Windows Product Key Finder Pro is another fantastic utility that can find your Windows product keys. It can also find product keys for several Microsoft Office programs.
Advantages include a very small download size, the ability to run it from a flash drive or other portable device, no compressed files to extract, and nothing to run to display the keys. Windows Product Key Finder Pro instantly displays product keys and allows you to save or print them for safe keeping.
Finds Keys for Operating Systems: Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2003, Windows XP, and Windows 2000.
Finds Keys for Other Software: Microsoft Office 2013, Office 2010, Office 2007, Office 2003, and Office XP.
It’s said that both Windows 10 and Windows 8 are supported, but we were unable to find the product key when we tested v2.5.
8. WinGuggle
WinGuggle is a very simple key finder program. WinGuggle easily finds product keys for popular Microsoft Windows operating systems and several Microsoft Office programs.
Major advantages include a quick download size, no installation required, access to a few advanced tools, and a very simple interface. WinGuggle instantly displays your Windows and Office product keys.
Finds Keys for Operating Systems: Windows 7, Windows Vista, and Windows XP.
Finds Keys for Other Software: Microsoft Office 2010, Office 2007, Office 2003, and Office XP.
Though WinGuggle supports Windows 8, Windows 10, and MS Office 2013, it did not find the correct keys when we tried it.
9. LicenseCrawler
LicenseCrawler differs from other key finder programs in its almost full-text interface. We found LicenseCrawler to be effective at finding serial numbers for the many programs on a test PC.
Finds Keys for Operating Systems: Windows 10, Windows 8, Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, and Windows 2000.
Finds Keys for Other Software: Microsoft Office 2013, Office 2010, Office 2007, Office 2003, most Adobe products, and many more.
10. SIW
SIW (System Information for Windows) is a portable program that displays tons of detailed information on your Windows installation and hardware devices best free product key finder program.
Finds Keys for Operating Systems: Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows 2000, and Windows NT.
Finds Keys for Other Software: Microsoft Office 2010, Office 2007, Office 2003, Office XP and other Microsoft products as well as non-Microsoft applications like Adobe products, Norton, Nero, AutoCAD, and 150+ others
SIW doesn’t run in Windows 10 or Windows 8.
11. RockXP
RockXP is another free program that retrieves lost product keys from the registry.
Advantages include small program size, no installation required, and additional features such as a password generator and password retriever.
Finds Keys for Operating Systems: Windows XP (officially) and also Windows Vista, Server 2003, 2000, ME, and 98.
Finds Keys for Other Software: Microsoft Office 2007 and Office 2003.
We tried running RockXP in Windows 10 and Windows 7 but none of the menus seemed to work, rendering the program useless, which means it probably works in Windows XP and Windows Vista only.
12. SterJo Key Finder
SterJo Key Finder is another key finder that finds product keys for over 500 games and software on either the local Windows install (your computer) or a remote one.
Finds Keys for Operating Systems: Windows 10, Windows 8, Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP, Windows Server 2008, and Windows Server 2003.
Finds Keys for Other Software: Microsoft Office 2013, Office 2010, Office 2007, Office 2003, Office XP, Microsoft Money, Microsoft Works, and lots of other Microsoft and non-Microsoft programs like Adobe, Autodesk, Cyberlink, and others.
It’s a great way to find product keys because the program is easy to read, you can search through the results, and it supports a huge number of products.
SterJo Key Finder found two different product keys for one of the programs in our test, which makes it hard to recommend above some of the other programs from this list best free product key finder program.
13. MSKeyViewer Plus
MSKeyViewer Plus is another good product key finder program. Major advantages include a really small size, no install needed, and super easy interface. It instantly displays product keys–no scanning of your registry required.
Finds Keys for Operating Systems: Windows 8, Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP, Windows 2000, Windows ME, Windows 95/98, and Windows Server 2008 & 2003. 64-bit versions are also supported.
Finds Keys for Other Software: Microsoft Office 2013, Office 2010, Office 2007, Office 2003, Office XP, Office 2000, Windows Server 2012 & 2008, plus a long list of other Microsoft and non-Microsoft programs.
Although the other Windows 8 compatible programs from this list were able to find the product key for our test installation, MSKeyViewer Plus wasn’t able to do so.
We’d probably pick several other key finders before this one, but if you’re having trouble finding a specific key, give it a try.
This software might find a key for your Windows 10 installation, but it’s probably going to be incorrect just as ours was.
14. Free PC Audit
Free PC Audit is a system information tool that shows not only hardware information but also product keys for several Windows and Microsoft Office installs.
It’s very small, completely portable, scans automatically, and lets you easily copy out product keys.
Finds Keys for Operating Systems: Windows 10, Windows 8, Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP, and probably older versions as well.
Finds Keys for Other Software: Microsoft Office 2013, Office 2010, 2007, Office 2003, and likely some older versions, as well as some Adobe and Corel software.
Because there’s so much other information shown in Free PC Audit, it can seem very cluttered if you’re using it just for finding product keys.
15. Windows Product Key Viewer
Windows Product Key Viewer is another key finder program that shows the product key for several versions of Windows.
You can easily copy the product key out of the program, print the keys, or save them to a file. Additional details are shown as well, such as the product ID, install date, and build number.
Finds Keys for Operating Systems: Windows 10, Windows 8, Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP, Windows 2000, Windows ME, Windows 98, Windows 95, and Windows Server 2008/2003
Because of Windows Product Key Viewer’s small size and portability, it’s a great product key finder to store on a flash drive best free product key finder program.
16. Lazesoft Windows Key Finder
Lazesoft Windows Key Finder is another free program that can find the product key for many Windows installs and Microsoft Office versions.
The program is small, completely portable, and simple to read. You can print or save the product keys to a file.
Finds Keys for Operating Systems: Windows 10, Windows 8, Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP, Windows 2000, and Windows Server 2012/2008/2003.
Finds Keys for Other Software: Microsoft Office 2016, 2013, Office 2010, Office 2007, Office 2003, and Office 2000.
Though Microsoft Office 2013 and 2016 is supported, we were unable to use Lazesoft Windows Key Finder to locate those keys in Windows 10, Windows 8, or Windows 7.
17. Wise Windows Key Finder
Wise Windows Key Finder is one of the most basic Windows key finder tools, but it works just as advertised. It’s so simple of a tool that if any of these other key finder software programs were too hard to use, this one is what you should try next.
Finds Keys for Operating Systems: Windows 10, Windows 8.1, Windows 8, Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP, Windows Server 2012, Windows Server 2008/2008 R2, and Windows Server 2003.
Finds Keys for Other Software: Microsoft Office: 2013, 2010, 2007, 2003, XP, 2000, and 97.
This program doesn’t need to be installed, so the moment you open it, the supported keys are shown. You can copy individual keys out of the program or export them all to a TXT file.
18. Product Key Informer
Product Key Informer is another free product key finder program but it finds product keys for only a few Microsoft programs other than the operating system best free product key finder program.
Finds Keys for Operating Systems: Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP, Windows 2000, Windows ME, and Windows 98.
Finds Keys for Other Software: Microsoft Office 2007, Office 2003, and Office XP.
We didn’t care much for Product Key Informer. The baked-in fields for specific product keys seemed a waste of screen real estate and confirms that the program’s product key-finding abilities are limited.
Windows 10 and Windows 8 are not supported.
19. Game Key Revealer
Game Key Revealer shows the product keys of over 2000 games.
It’s completely portable, takes up very little space, and can export keys to a text file or print them off.
Finds Keys for Games: Half-Life, Battlefield 2, Counter-Strike, Mirror’s Edge, Halo, Need for Speed, Dead Space, Crysis, Harry Potter, and many more.
In addition to showing the product keys for a few thousand games, keys for nearly two dozen can actually be changed with Game Key Revealer, which could come in handy.
20. Abelssoft’s MyKeyFinder
MyKeyFinder lets you save product keys to a PDF file or to the clipboard. You can also send one or more keys to a printer.
You can search through the list of install keys it finds and even add registry keys to a blocklist to avoid finding serials in those locations.
Finds Keys for Operating Systems: Windows 10, Windows 8, and Windows 7.
Finds Keys for Other Software: VMware, some Microsoft Office products, and others.
While testing MyKeyFinder, we found that a scan takes a little longer to complete than any of the other programs from this list. Also, it found keys for programs (dozens of them) that don’t actually use serials, as well a key for Microsoft Office 2013 that wasn’t correct.
