Win7 Product Key Help.

[grimes]

I'm reformatting my friends laptop, and the smart people of Toshiba put a paper product key sticker on the bottom of the laptop and some of the letters are faded to the point where you cannot read it, even with a magnifying glass, which I used.

Simply, Is there another way to find out the product key?


***EDIT***
I see the www.microsoft.com/privacy/howtotell link on the bottom of the sticker but that doesn't seem to work.

 

[mightymaxio]

I use magicjellybeanfinder, it works great to pull product keys from an installed windows xp through 7. I used it on my laptop when my sticker was faded and I could then reinstall it, from then on I always remove the sticker the first day i get a laptop and put it on a cd case to not have it fade.

 

[warhead0]

Seems odd that you need to enter a product key on the laptop...
Laptops usually have a recovery tool where you can reset to the factory settings, no keys needed, the laptop takes car of that.

You may have another copy of the key with the documentation that came with the laptop.

There are free key finder programs out there, I have never used one or have any experience with them, so I can't exactly recommend one, try google it.

 

[grimes]

Seems odd that you need to enter a product key on the laptop...
Laptops usually have a recovery tool where you can reset to the factory settings, no keys needed, the laptop takes car of that.

You may have another copy of the key with the documentation that came with the laptop.

There are free key finder programs out there, I have never used one or have any experience with them, so I can't exactly recommend one, try google it.

There was a partitioned space with the factory defaults but I just decided to do a fresh install. I'm also sort of nervous about using a key finder, not sure if safe.

 

[4745454b]

They are. The only down side is you need to use it while your laptop is still bootable. If your laptop won't boot or you already formatted it, then magicjellybean finder won't do squat for you.

Can you guess the letters? If only a few are faded and there are only a few options, shouldn't take THAT long to guess them. If they are completely faded I'm not sure what to do.

 

[grimes]

They are. The only down side is you need to use it while your laptop is still bootable. If your laptop won't boot or you already formatted it, then magicjellybean finder won't do squat for you.

Can you guess the letters? If only a few are faded and there are only a few options, shouldn't take THAT long to guess them. If they are completely faded I'm not sure what to do.

There is 1 or 2 letters/numbers faded in each 5 digit code. I wrote down multiple keys and none were valid. There is a XXX-XXXXX code to the right of it. If maybe my friend called Microsoft support and provided that number could it be all straightened out?

 

[fowang]

key finder is safe!

 

[JDFan]

What are you using to install from ?? -- IF using the recovery CD that came with the laptop the key will already be embedded into the install -- If using a Retail copy the key on the bottom of the system will not work anyway since an OEM key needs to be used with an OEM disk.

Calling MS will not do any good with a laptop -- OEM versions are supported by the OEM not microsoft -- try calling Toshiba support and by reading them the portions that you can still read and with the laptop serial # they should be able to provide you with a working key. But you may still have problems if trying to use a retail disk to install from and not an OEM disk !

 

[Dark Lord of Tech]

http://www.pendriveapps.com/windows-product-key-finder/#more-5647