Finding the Windows XP product key

The bad news is that the product keys in Windows XP are encrypted (in earlier versions of Windows you could find the key buried in the registry).  Even if you could find them, what you come up with would be useless.  To get around this problem, there are several free key finders available. My choice was WinKeyFinder, which can be found at this url: http://www.winkeyfinder.com/remository/winkeyfinder/win-keyfinder-1.73-rc2.php

Once you have downloaded the program, run it. It will display some characters on the screen.

The numbers and letters displayed by the program represent the Windows XP product key. The product key should be formatted like xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx – five sets of five letters and numbers.  Write this number down, and save it for later use.  The program will offer to save a text file, but it’s a good practice to write down the key for your prducts and file them in hardcopy.

Article written by MyComputerAid.com