Windows 8 comes in a DVD cover over which the Windows product key is printed. But we lose the DVD cover very soon and when it comes to reinstalling Windows, we cannot seem to find the license key which is required to install Windows 8. Thanks to a free tool called Windows 8 Product Key Viewer using which you can now find the product key that you used to activate Windows 8.
You can download the Windows 8 Product Key Viewer from the Chip Magazine website. The download is a very small file. You can extract the contents of the downloaded ZIP archive to a folder and run pkeyui.exe program from there. The program shows a small window displaying your Windows 8 product key. This product key is same as the one you used to activate Windows 8. This key can also be used to re-install Windows 8. You can copy this key to clipboard by clicking on the Copy button.
The program is able to find keys for Microsoft Internet Explorer if you select the IE KEY checkbox. This program looks for the product key not only in the Windows registry, but also in the SLIC (software licensing) and MSDM (Microsoft data management) tables. These tables are used by Windows to store your activation data including the Windows product key.
Although Windows 8 Product Key Viewer is titled to indicate that it works with Windows 8, but it also works with Windows XP, Vista and 7. The application itself is a portable program, therefore you can copy this to your USB key and use it directly from the USB key on any Windows PC you want. Unlike some other CD key viewers for Windows 8 which incorrectly show the key from the Windows registry, the Windows 8 Product Key Viewer finds out the correct product key from the SLIC or MSDM tables.
You can download Windows 8 Product Key Viewer from http://www.box.com/.