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c#registryproduct-key

How to Get Product Keys (e.g. Adobe, Office) in Windows?


There are several answered questions about how to get the Windows OS Product Key like Get windows details like product key, domain name, user name, etc., but I was wondering how to programmatically get the Product Key for a piece of installed software. Uninstall Registry Key is really nice as it has a lot of attributes tied to an installed program, but none of the attributes involve a Product Key so I was wondering if there's some other means via some C# library or some such to get the Product Key for an arbitrary piece of software and how to get it via C#.


Solution

  • There's no standard way that every program stores it's product key or licensing. For example, you can recover the Office product key from 2010 and prior, but with 2013, I do not believe it's possible. Many products have the activation details either encrypted in the registry or using a cloud-based solution (Office 365, Adobe CC). You can try to research the individual products you would like to target to get a better sense of how each program is handled.