However, if you've lost your product key, all hope is not lost - your Windows 7 key is stored in the
registry but is encrypted and not readable, making finding it difficult. Luckily there are several free programs that can help.
Manually locating the Windows 7 product key from the registry is nearly impossible due to the fact that it's encrypted.
Note: The manual techniques used to locate the product key for
operating systems like
Windows 95 and
Windows 98 will not work in Windows 7. Those manual procedures will only locate the product ID number, not the actual product key used for installation. Lucky for us, several free programs exist to help find product keys.
Any product key finder that locates Windows 7 product keys will locate the product keys for any version of Windows 7: Ultimate, Enterprise, Professional, Home Premium, Home Basic, and Starter.
http://pcsupport.about.com/od/productkeysactivation/tp/topkeyfinder.htm
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