System Find Product Key in Windows 11

Superfly · Apr 1, 2022

Thanx Shawn

and all Admin and fellow members for the support - since Eight Forum days!

I don't think I give you guys enough credit for the support (which leads to motivation to continue, naturally) :)

fusionsynth · Mar 13, 2025

It says: MAK-key not available. What does this mean?

cereberus · Mar 13, 2025

fusionsynth said:
It says: MAK-key not available. What does this mean?

It means it is a volume licence key is detected but not found.

These keys are not for normal consumers but for company use.

Unfortunately, many sellers scam users with these keys, and if MS detect illicit usage, they can block the keys.
Users often find they work for a while but at next update, the keys no longer work.

Activate volume licensed versions of Office by using MAK - Office

Provides Office admins with information about using Multiple Activation Key (MAK) to activate volume licensed versions of Office, Project, and Visio.

learn.microsoft.com

dacrone · Mar 13, 2025

if you still need to pull your key, you can look in:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\SoftwareProtectionPlatform\

or try:

(Win Defender will block this old tool, but it is completely safe. Have to unblock/unquarantine it in Win Def):
.https://www.nirsoft.net/utils/product_cd_key_viewer.html

and

.https://www.nirsoft.net/utils/product_key_scanner.html

Gas · Mar 13, 2025

cereberus said:
It means it is a volume licence key is detected but not found.

These keys are not for normal consumers but for company use.

Unfortunately, many sellers scam users with these keys, and if MS detect illicit usage, they can block the keys.
Users often find they work for a while but at next update, the keys no longer work.

Activate volume licensed versions of Office by using MAK - Office

Provides Office admins with information about using Multiple Activation Key (MAK) to activate volume licensed versions of Office, Project, and Visio.

learn.microsoft.com

Does this mean that any key bought on line from keys sellers are not legit? I was thinking to build a PC for my daughter and buy a key from one of the many keys sellers,.

antspants · Mar 13, 2025

Gas said:
Does this mean that any key bought on line from keys sellers are not legit? I was thinking to build a PC for my daughter and buy a key from one of the many keys sellers,.

I’d say most sellers, but not all. It’s not like they are all illegitimate, but as cereberus mentions, most likely volume licenses.

You would be pretty unlucky to be flagged by Microsoft and have your key eventually not being accepted. Buy it from somewhere like Stack Social, I have discovered that they also kind of fit into the above statement but non the less, they are working keys.

Don’t buy a key unless you’re going to use it in the next few days (no more than 30 days)
Once used and it becomes a digital licence in the Microsoft Account, you should be fine.

Alternatively, pay full price from Microsoft.

NavyLCDR · Mar 13, 2025

antspants said:
I’d say most sellers, but not all. It’s not like they are all illegitimate, but as cereberus mentions, most likely volume licenses.

You would be pretty unlucky to be flagged by Microsoft and have your key eventually not being accepted. Buy it from somewhere like Stack Social, I have discovered that they also kind of fit into the above statement but non the less, they are working keys.

Don’t buy a key unless you’re going to use it in the next few days (no more than 30 days)
Once used and it becomes a digital licence in the Microsoft Account, you should be fine.

Alternatively, pay full price from Microsoft.

In addition, once you get the digital license from Microsoft, change the product key to the generic retail Windows 10/11 product key. Get the dubious product off the system.

Bree · Mar 13, 2025

fusionsynth said:
It says: MAK-key not available. What does this mean?

cereberus said:
It means it is a volume licence key is detected but not found.
These keys are not for normal consumers but for company use.

Documentation for ShowKeyPlus can be found over on Ten Forums. It explains this in more detail. Earlier versions showed the actual dummy key, but the latest now says it's a MAK key and therefore unavailable.

Superfly said:
Should your key display as BBBBB-BBBBB-BBBBB-BBBBB-BBBBB, it is a placeholder Windows inserts after activating a MAK key. The reason being, these keys can have thousands of activations (for which companies pay huge amounts) and should someone steal one, they could sell that same key to thousands and each will activate as if part of a company network - it's thus a security feature specific to MAK's.

Version 1.0.6893
New features....

Over-ride the MAK key removal display ("BBBBB-BBBBB-BBBBB-BBBBB-BBBBB") with explanatory text.

ShowKeyPlus - Windows 10 Help Forums

I have converted the vbs to .Net for speed and backward compatibility with Win 8.0. Should be fine on WTP, but please report any bugs (This is a quite

www.tenforums.com

abactuon · Mar 14, 2025

I don't remember where I got it, i.e. the key is stored in a register and it just needs to be converted into a readable form.

Powershell:

function Get-WindowsProductKey {

    function Get-OSDigitalID($Key) {

        $KeyOffset = 52
        $isWin8 = [Int]($Key[66] / 6) -bAND 1
        $HF7 = 0xF7
        $Key[66] = ($Key[66] -bAND $HF7) -bOR (($isWin8 -bAND 2) * 4)
        $i = 24
        [String]$Chars = 'BCDFGHJKMPQRTVWXY2346789'
        do {
            $Current = 0
            $j = 14
            do {
                $Current = $Current * 256  
                $Current = $Key[$j + $KeyOffset] + $Current
                $Key[$j + $KeyOffset] = [math]::Floor([double]($Current / 24))
                $Current = $Current % 24
                $j = $j - 1
            } while ($j -ge 0)
            $i = $i - 1
            $KeyOutput = $Chars.SubString($Current, 1) + $KeyOutput
            $Last = $Current
        } while ($i -ge 0)
       
        $KeyPart1 = $KeyOutput.SubString(1, $Last)
        $KeyPart2 = $KeyOutput.SubString(1, $KeyOutput.Length - 1)
        if ($Last -eq 0) {
            $KeyOutput = 'N' + $KeyPart2
        }
        else {
            $KeyOutput = $KeyPart2.Insert($KeyPart2.IndexOf($KeyPart1) + $KeyPart1.Length, 'N')
        }
        $a = $KeyOutput.SubString(0, 5)
        $b = $KeyOutput.SubString(5, 5)
        $c = $KeyOutput.SubString(10, 5)
        $d = $KeyOutput.SubString(15, 5)
        $e = $KeyOutput.SubString(20, 5)
        $KeyProduct = $a + '-' + $b + '-' + $c + '-' + $d + '-' + $e
        $KeyProduct
    }
   
    $DigitalID = (Get-ItemPropertyValue 'HKLM:Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion' -Name 'DigitalProductId')
    $Name      = (Get-ItemPropertyValue 'HKLM:Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion' -Name 'ProductName')
    $Build     = (Get-ItemPropertyValue 'HKLM:Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion' -Name 'CurrentBuild')
    $Major     = (Get-ItemPropertyValue 'HKLM:Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion' -Name 'CurrentMajorVersionNumber')
    $Minor     = (Get-ItemPropertyValue 'HKLM:Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion' -Name 'CurrentMinorVersionNumber')
    #$Owner     = (Get-ItemPropertyValue 'HKLM:Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion' -Name 'RegisteredOwner')
    $Install   = (Get-ItemPropertyValue 'HKLM:Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion' -Name 'InstallTime'); $Install = [datetime]::FromFileTime($Install)
    $Type      = (Get-ItemPropertyValue 'HKLM:System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Environment\' -Name 'PROCESSOR_ARCHITECTURE')
    if ($Type -eq 'x86') { $Type = '32-bit Operating System' } else { $Type = '64-bit Operating System' }
    $ProductID = (Get-ItemPropertyValue 'HKLM:Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion' -Name 'ProductId')
    $ProductKey = Get-OSDigitalID $DigitalID

    $Results = New-Object -Type PSObject -Property @{
        'OS Name'          = $Name + ' Build ' + $Build + '.' + $Major + '.' + $Minor
        'OS Type'          = $Type
        'Registered Owner' = $Owner
        'Install Date'     = $Install
        'Product ID'       = $ProductID
        'Product Key'      = $ProductKey
    }
    $Results
}

Get-WindowsProductKey

PCUser · Mar 14, 2025

Finding your Windows 11 install key.

Two easy ways. Look below!
Enjoy. Hope this helps!
All the best

How to find your Windows 11 product key using the command prompt application.

To get started:
1. Go to the Windows start bar, and type in “CMD”
2. Right click on the command prompt application, and click on the “Run as administrator” option.
3. Now that command prompt has opened, enter the following command “wmic path softwarelicensingservice get OA3xOriginalProductKey”.
4. Your Windows 11 Product Key will now be displayed

Or, open your registry editor (regedit), "Run as Administrator"

go to:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\SoftwareProtectionPlatform

and you'll see it.

gunrunnerjohn · Mar 14, 2025

How do you tell if a key is a volume key? A search turned up this command.

I used this in an admin command window: slmgr /dli

I got this back for my new machine I'm building.

PCUser · Mar 14, 2025

gunrunnerjohn said:
How do you tell if a key is a volume key? A search turned up this command.

I used this in an admin command window: slmgr /dli

I got this back for my new machine I'm building.

View attachment 128280

Try my methods in my post (above)
Good luck

gunrunnerjohn · Mar 14, 2025

PCUser said:
Try my methods in my post (above)
Good luck

Well, I think that command answered the question for me, I'm presuming the Retail Channel in the output should tell the tale.

PCUser · Mar 14, 2025

gunrunnerjohn said:
Well, I think that command answered the question for me, I'm presuming the Retail Channel in the output should tell the tale.

@gunrunnerjohn If the command line doesn't solve your problem, the regedit method will.

Good luck

gunrunnerjohn · Mar 14, 2025

PCUser said:
@gunrunnerjohn If the command line doesn't solve your problem, the regedit method will.

Good luck

Well, as long as Windows keeps working, I'm covered.

fusionsynth · Mar 15, 2025

Thanks, guys for your reply.

fusionsynth · Mar 15, 2025

PCUser said:
Finding your Windows 11 install key.

Two easy ways. Look below!
Enjoy. Hope this helps!
All the best

How to find your Windows 11 product key using the command prompt application.

To get started:
1. Go to the Windows start bar, and type in “CMD”
2. Right click on the command prompt application, and click on the “Run as administrator” option.
3. Now that command prompt has opened, enter the following command “wmic path softwarelicensingservice get OA3xOriginalProductKey”.
4. Your Windows 11 Product Key will now be displayed

View attachment 128279

When i try this, i get the following message:
'wmic' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.

dacrone · Mar 15, 2025

fusionsynth said:
When i try this, i get the following message:
'wmic' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.

have to enable that optional feature in 24h2

Add or Remove WMIC command Feature in Windows 11

This tutorial will show you how to add or remove the WMIC command as an optional feature for all users in Windows 11. The WMI command-line (WMIC) utility provides a command-line interface for Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI). WMIC is compatible with existing shells and utility commands...

www.elevenforum.com

dacrone · Mar 17, 2025

abactuon said:
I don't remember where I got it, i.e. the key is stored in a register and it just needs to be converted into a readable form.

very nice. thanks for that. converted to an encoded .bat file for ease. attached.

System Find Product Key in Windows 11

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