If your device isn't one of the few to come with Microsoft Function pre-installed, it'due south highly probable you'll become a production key when purchasing the software.

That crucial information is required when installing information technology on your machine, and means you tin reinstall it at whatever time should something get incorrect. Some versions of Microsoft Office can even exist installed on more one device.

Just what about if the worst happens and y'all lose your product cardinal? Does that hateful you lot tin can't reinstall function again?

Fortunately, all is non lost. Here's how to retrieve your Office production fundamental via Windows.

How do I find my Office product key?

For recent versions (back to 2013) yous tin find the key in your Microsoft business relationship. More details are available in our split up guide: how to download older versions of Microsoft Office.

If you're a scrap of a techie, yous may have idea to locate the product key by hunting through the Windows Registry. But this isn't possible equally the code is encrypted. Luckily, there are plenty of apps that will do all the legwork for y'all.

Our favourite of these is ProduKey, a gratuitous app which will delve into the Registry to fish out and decrypt your Office production key, for versions older than Office 2013.

How to find out your Microsoft Office Product Key

Once downloaded, run it and it will immediately display the production keys of any Microsoft Office software upward to (but not including) 2013, every bit well as the keys of operating systems such as Windows Vista, 7 and 8. And then you tin either copy the keys for future utilise, or export them to a HTML file and save it for hereafter reference.

If information technology doesn't work, endeavor Belarc Advisor, or if y'all're willing to pay for software, Recover Keys is able to browse more than deeply than any free app (including Magical Jelly Bean Keyfinder).

How to find your Office product key

Although yous're probably interested in finding only your Part product cardinal, Recover Keys supports over 9000 apps, can scan remote Windows and Mac computers, recover license keys from external storage, browse multiple Windows installations, and can even run from a USB drive. And at £24.95 / $29.95, it's cheaper than buying another re-create of Part.

How tin I find an Office 2013, 2016 or 2019 product primal?

If Office was pre-installed when you bought your PC or laptop, you might observe a sticker on the machine itself with the code. But we're bold you lot've looked in all those obvious places before turning to the spider web and finding this commodity.

Whether Role was pre-installed or not, here'due south the bad news: Microsoft changed how product keys are stored, so kickoff with Microsoft Role 2013,but the concluding v digits of the 25-graphic symbol code are stored in the Registry for Office 2013, 2016 and 2019.

What this means is that - every bit with all Windows 10 production keys - whatever code that a keyfinder app shows you will not work. If the first twenty digits are shown at all for an Office product, they volition exist generic.

The useful part, though, is that the concluding five digits should be the correct ones for your license which means you tin can search your email and computer's hard drive to see if you find any emails or matching files which comprise the full product key.

If that fails, your remaining options are to do a full factory reset on your computer (only only if in that location is a recovery partition that includes all the original software that came with it) or to buy a new copy of Function.

Nevertheless, if you weren't aware, in that location are a few excellent free office suites which work just similar Microsoft'southward version and tin salvage in the same formats, which means files you create with them tin can be opened and edited past others using Microsoft Part. See our recommendations for the best Office alternatives here.

If y'all need it, here's how to become the product primal for Windows itself.