The 25-character key string (usually displayed as five groups of five characters separated by hyphens) is stored in the Windows Registry. There are a few ways to display it.
1. You can sometimes display it using this command (from a Command Prompt window ("cmd"):
wmic path softwarelicensingservice get OA3xOriginalProductKeyIf you're lucky, and the computer was purchased with Windows pre-installed (most businesses do this), then it will display the key string. If not it'll just print back "OA3xOriginalProductKey" and no key.
2. If that didn't work, try the Belacr Advisor program. Browse to https://www.belarc.com, click the "Free Download" menu item, and download a free copy of the Belarc Advisor. Install (temporarily) and run it. It will take a minute or two and then print out a LOT of information about your computer. Look under "Software Licenses" for one that says "Microsoft - Windows 7 Pro". Across from that will be two strings. The first is an identifier (often contains the substring "-OEM-"). The second is the Key -- 5 groups of 5 characters. That's what you're looking for.
3. Finally, but only as a last resort: The key can also be retrieved and displayed using various software tools found on the internet, most are called something like "Windows Key Finder" or some such name. But beware Some of them are spyware/malware. I don't recommend taking chances like that unless there's no other option, and make sure you have a good backup of the system before you download any untrusted software, in case you have to restore.
Good luck!
Thank you !!
I did #1 and it came back OA3xOriginalProductKey like you said it might. Does that mean that the number is not on the computer at all? If that's the case I don't want to download anything from Belarc as it would be useless. Could the number be anywhere outside of Windows registry?
thank you for your help!