We have seen that Windows is the most used operating system in the world right now and there is a big reason for that. It is seen that the majority of the corporates are known to be using Windows PCs outside of the Western countries even if it means that they are using older versions of Windows OS.
It is also seen that most of the Windows laptops come with a key that is the license to officially run the OS on your device and it comes pre-installed. But you can see the key that has been entered to register your device.
But if there is a complete format of your PC or laptop, it is possible that the key that was stored on your system gets wiped. In that case, you will not be able to claim that the version of Windows you are running is legal and there will also be a watermark you need to see all the time. Therefore, we are here to tell you about a way in which you can restore Windows 10 key even after a complete format.
Method 1: Restore Windows 10 key after a complete format
The best way to restore your Windows 10 key is via the motherboard that comes with every PC. Let’s assume that the Windows 10 came pre-installed on your device and you have not purchased it using a Microsoft account.
So in that case, your Microsoft account might not reflect that you have a valid license of Windows 10. However, your PC’s motherboard will not be wiped and your license key is stored there as well. So you can do the following steps to get back the original Windows 10 key and run Windows legally once again.
- For that, you need to install Windows 10 without a license key for now which will be added later.
- If asked for a key, you should press the “Skip” button.
- Now, go to your Security app on Windows 10 and click on Updates & Security and go to the Activation tab.
- Here, you will see if your product key has been found and Windows 10 has been activated.
Method 2: Restore Windows 10 key with a recovery tool
If you are someone who has purchased a PC from a local shop and your Windows 10 was activated, you should be able to recover your key with a software called Produkey from Nirsoft.
- This software can be downloaded from here, install this app on your PC and run the file. Once the app is running, it will read your product key from the motherboard of your PC. This will mean that you can do this even while running Windows 10 and store it in a safe place for use later on.
- After that, just make sure that you enter the product key whenever you install a new version of Windows 10 and your copy will be activated.
As we mentioned earlier, these are the best ways to recover a product key if you have factory formatted the PC and lost the keys.
There is also a way to activate the copy of Windows 10 from your Microsoft account but in that case, you should have bought the license from official Windows store.