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Extracting the Windows licence: how it works

Knowledge: Used software from VENDOSOFT

To sell your Windows licence or to reinstall Windows 10, you need your product key. If you don’t have this to hand, you can extract it from the system. You can find out exactly how this works here.

Each Windows version has an associated licence (key). This is a sequence of numbers and letters that is required to activate the program, including when it’s sold. If you buy a new version of Windows, this numerical code usually comes with it.

However, sometimes it’s not available, especially with Windows 10. In this case you can extract the Windows licence from the system. All you need is a suitable tool that is available free of charge. However, there is a difference depending on whether you want to extract a Windows 10 or a Windows 7 licence.

Why extract the Windows 2010 licence from the system?

People usually want to extract a Windows 2010 licence for the following reasons:

  • You would like to sell your Windows 10 license.
  • The key supplied with the program has been lost.
  • There was no licence key to start with.

The latter is often why users want to extract a Windows 2010 licence from the system. This is because many have received the program through a free update of Windows 2007 or Windows 8.1. In this situation, extracting the Windows 10 licence is a safer bet than relying on a new installation using the key from the previous version.

However, you usually want to extract an Office or a Windows 7 licence because the key has been lost.

How to find your Windows key

The Windows licence is stored in the registry, but in a coded form, so you need special tools to extract a Windows licence. These can be downloaded free of charge. Extracting the Windows 2010 licence works well with the Windows 2010 Product Key Viewer.

If you also want to extract an Office licence, you need a program that shows you several keys. In this case, LicenceCrawler is recommended. This powerful tool reads all programs that are stored in the registry. It’s not only suitable for the licence of Windows 10, but also for finding the access data of non-Windows programs.

Extracting the Windows and Office licence

To extract a Windows licence, download LicenceCrawler first. The same applies if you want to extract an Office licence. Then click “Search”. The crawler then combs the registry for corresponding entries and displays them. This is how to proceed whether you want to extract a Windows licence or an Office licence.

The result can be easily exported and saved on your own computer. LicenceCrawler can be run from a USB stick. The Windows 2010 Product Key Viewer works just as easily. This can also be used to extract the Windows 7 licence. However, the program doesn’t access non-Windows programs.

Do you have any questions or do you need help extracting the Windows licence?

Are you struggling to extract a Windows licence? Are you unsure how to extract an Office licence for 2013? Contact VENDOSOFT for licensing advice. We’ll tell you how to extract Windows 10 or Windows 7 licences if you want to sell them to us or are interested in other used software licences.
You can reach us on +49 (0) 8143-99694-0 or via our contact form.