Find Lost Windows and Office Product Key with Bootable CD or USB

How can I recover Windows product key from a computer that won't boot? If you want to retrieve or transfer license keys from a crashed or damaged computer, a bootable keyfinder Live CD can come in handy - PCUnlocker. The program is a small WinPE boot disk that you can use to find lost Windows and Office product keys from unbootable hard drive or computer.

Part 1: Create a Keyfinder Bootable CD

You'll need to have PCUnlocker on a bootable CD (or USB drive) to find lost product keys, so use another computer to perform the following steps of creating a keyfinder bootable CD:

1. Download the zipped ISO image of PCUnlocker, and extract the .iso from inside the zip file.

2. Pop in a blank disc to the CD/DVD drive, right-click on the ISO file and select "Burn disc image".

   

   If you want to put PCUnlocker on a bootable USB, just download the freeware ISO2Disc or Rufus. Both of them can help you make bootable USB in just a few mouse clicks.

   

3. When you're done, pop out the disc and you can proceed to the next step.

Part 2: Find Windows or Office Product Key

When the keyfinder bootable CD is created, you can connect it to your broken computer and boot from it. The built-in PCUnlocker program makes it super easy to extract lost product keys from your Windows installations.

1. When the PCUnlocker program launches from the CD, click the Options button in lower-left corner, and then select "Find Product Key" from the menu that appears.

   

2. The program will show the product keys for all sorts of software installed on your computer which can vary from Microsoft Office, Windows, SQL Server and so forth.

   

3. Once you clicking the Save button, a browser dialog box will pop up and let you choose the directory to save the product keys. When your hard drive is inaccessible, save them on a USB drive.

   

This should be the easiest way to find product keys from a PC or laptop if Windows is corrupt and you can't get it to boot, or you can't log in. Make sure you track down your lost product keys before you reintall Windows or format the hard drive.