Need to find ACTUAL Windows 11 product key for clean install

Before anyone tells me otherwise -- yes, I know that (1) I don't need a product key and (2) Windows will automatically re-activate once the clean install is done and I reconnect to the Internet...

Problem is, I went through this last November and BOTH of these proved untrue. Windows did NOT reactivate, despite my having a Retail license (which I confirmed using the slmgr command) and I had to resort to calling MS to get it fixed. They had me hunt down an old Win7 Retail Pack and use the product key from that -- because I upgraded to Win11 from Win10, and to Win10 from Win7.

And yes, I know I could do that again -- but I'm looking for a way to find the ACTUAL product key on my PC, not the GENERIC key that all the commands and ShowKeyPlus present.

Can anyone help?

As far as I know, if you have a digital license for 11 (as from an upgrade), the key is not present on your machine.

It's also inaccessible from the MS activation servers.

Mark Phelps said:

Before anyone tells me otherwise -- yes, I know that (1) I don't need a product key and (2) Windows will automatically re-activate once the clean install is done and I reconnect to the Internet...

Problem is, I went through this last November and BOTH of these proved untrue. Windows did NOT reactivate, despite my having a Retail license (which I confirmed using the slmgr command) and I had to resort to calling MS to get it fixed. They had me hunt down an old Win7 Retail Pack and use the product key from that -- because I upgraded to Win11 from Win10, and to Win10 from Win7.

And yes, I know I could do that again -- but I'm looking for a way to find the ACTUAL product key on my PC, not the GENERIC key that all the commands and ShowKeyPlus present.

Can anyone help?

Click to expand...

As @bobkn says, you do not have a Windows 10 or Windows 11 key.

You upgraded from Windows 7 so got a digital licence and a generic key - you never had a new key, so you cannot find one.
All Windows 7 upgrades to W10 worked like this.

I cannot say why you had an issue - that is rare.

All you can do is install, skip key entry, and if necessary re-enter W7 key.

Mark Phelps said:

I upgraded to Win11 from Win10, and to Win10 from Win7.

And yes, I know I could do that again -- but I'm looking for a way to find the ACTUAL product key on my PC, not the GENERIC key that all the commands and ShowKeyPlus present.

Click to expand...

There is no ACTUAL key. The upgrade from Win7 to Win10 would get the generic key, and a digital licence linked to the hardware ID of the PC would have been stored on the MS activation servers. The upgrade to Win11 would also keep the generic key and activate from the existing digital licence.

Problem is, I went through this last November and BOTH of these proved untrue. Windows did NOT reactivate....

Click to expand...

There are two possible reasons for the generic key not to activate from the digital licence.

The first would be installing the wrong edition. The digital licence is for only one edition, and a digital licence for Home will not activate an install of Pro.

The second is a significant hardware change. A new motherboard will change the hardware ID sufficiently for activation to fail. Usually the Activation Troubleshooter can sort this out, made easier if you had already linked your digital licence to your MS account.

As others have stated, you are asking the impossible. You have two product keys - the Windows 7 product key, and the generic product key for the matching edition of Windows 10/11. None others.

Mark Phelps said:

Before anyone tells me otherwise -- yes, I know that (1) I don't need a product key and (2) Windows will automatically re-activate once the clean install is done and I reconnect to the Internet...

Problem is, I went through this last November and BOTH of these proved untrue. Windows did NOT reactivate, despite my having a Retail license (which I confirmed using the slmgr command) and I had to resort to calling MS to get it fixed. They had me hunt down an old Win7 Retail Pack and use the product key from that -- because I upgraded to Win11 from Win10, and to Win10 from Win7.

And yes, I know I could do that again -- but I'm looking for a way to find the ACTUAL product key on my PC, not the GENERIC key that all the commands and ShowKeyPlus present.

Can anyone help?

Click to expand...

To find out your Windows Product key that's injected in your computer's motherboard:

Download the latest portable version of RWEverything and launch it as admin

Click on ACCESS > ACPI Tables

Then go to the MSDM Tab:

Y'all do realize the last post in this thread was 3 months ago, right? And the OP, Mark Phelps never made a single reply in it.

An option for reading Windows is the free Belarc Advisor, gives in the Software Licenses section.