Get windows bios key

[thewhite]

Hi,

There is a way to get the windows key stored in bios? Not the productkey of the current running windows.
My Goal is to see if i have a windows 7 computer with a windows 10 key stored in bios to update these computer to windows 10 at no charge.

As windows 7 have no key in bios, if they found one, i will that's is for windows 10. (we don't have any windows 😎

[CyberCitizen]

Good to here. I ended up using ShowKeyPlus as I liked the output it gave, just did it as a package that rights to a network location. Then read that data into another system. But glad to have helped, as its has helped me too in regards to recording existing keys for upgrades. We have a few iMacs that get spun up on Boot Camp, before I had a lovely notepad with keys written in the back, but this will make it alot easier.

[thewhite]

Thanks a lok CyberCitizen, you give me the right way. Here's my code:

::::: start :::::
@echo off
for /F %%i in (computer.txt) do (
psexec \\%%i -u %user% -p %password% cmd /c "\\share\produkey.exe /shtml "\\share\key\%%i.html"
)
::::: end :::::


So this is a batch file, you run it in same directory than psexec and you use a admin account. With this, i got key from all computer in my domain and if a windows 7 computer have a key in bios, it probably a downgrade from windows 10, so i'm 95% sure that i can install windows 10. The way to confirm this is to start windows 10 setup from dvd, just before getting the part to format hard drive, if the setup ask you to choose the version of windows to install "home, pro...", you don't have a windows 10 key in bios. If you don't see this step, you are good.

[CyberCitizen]

You could also use ShowKeyPlus as a package. I might do this myself now, as can always do with some spare Win 7 Key's for Free Upgrades.

https://github.com/Superfly-Inc/ShowKeyPlus/releases/download/ShowKeyPlus7051/ShowKeyPlusX64_Beta_v7051.zip
https://github.com/Superfly-Inc/ShowKeyPlus/releases/download/ShowKeyPlus7051/ShowKeyPlusX86_Beta_v7051.zip

ShowKeyPlus.exe C:\Temp\Testing\%COMPUTERNAME%.txt

[CyberCitizen]

I only had a Windows 7 VM, so I didn't expect it to work, I go an error but unable to tell if that was due to VM or Powershell command.

There is also Prodkey which claims to retrieve the BIOS key's.

You could create a deployment package with something like this.
produkey.exe /shtml "C:\temp\%COMPUTERNAME%.html" /sort "Product Name"

But have it save to a shared network location.

[CyberCitizen]

PowerShell v2.0 was completed and released to manufacturing in August 2009, as an integral part of Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2. Versions of PowerShell for Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 were released in October 2009 and are available for download for both 32-bit and 64-bit platforms.

[thewhite]

Thanks, but this code powershell or cmd, doesn't work on windows 7, only on win 8 and 10.

[AZHockeyNut]

thewhite wrote:
Thanks, but this code powershell or cmd, doesn't work on windows 7, only on win 8 and 10.

the article claims it WILL work on windows 7, which was part of the reason I posted the link for you to read.
I don't have any to test it for you so I cannot validate that. Perhaps the version of powershell you have on your win seven is not high enough? however, you could see if the alternatives he linked to work or magicjellybean

[AZHockeyNut]

thewhite wrote:
Hi,

There is a way to get the windows key stored in bios? Not the productkey of the current running windows.
My Goal is to see if i have a windows 7 computer with a windows 10 key stored in bios to update these computer to windows 10 at no charge.

As windows 7 have no key in bios, if they found one, i will that's is for windows 10. (we don't have any windows 😎

not sure if LS can find it however I did find this which might be useful