If your device isn't one of the few to come up with Microsoft Office pre-installed, information technology's highly probable you'll get a product cardinal when purchasing the software.

That crucial information is required when installing it on your machine, and means you lot can reinstall information technology at whatsoever time should something go incorrect. Some versions of Microsoft Role tin fifty-fifty exist installed on more than one device.

But what about if the worst happens and y'all lose your product key? Does that hateful you can't reinstall office once more?

Fortunately, all is not lost. Hither'south how to remember your Office product fundamental via Windows.

How practice I find my Office product cardinal?

For contempo versions (dorsum to 2013) you tin find the key in your Microsoft account. More details are bachelor in our separate guide: how to download older versions of Microsoft Office.

If you're a bit of a techie, you may accept thought to locate the production key past hunting through the Windows Registry. Only this isn't possible equally the code is encrypted. Luckily, there are enough of apps that will do all the legwork for yous.

Our favourite of these is ProduKey, a costless app which will delve into the Registry to fish out and decrypt your Office product 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 Part software upwards to (but not including) 2013, equally well as the keys of operating systems such as Windows Vista, vii and 8. Then yous can either re-create the keys for futurity utilise, or export them to a HTML file and save it for future reference.

If it doesn't work, try Belarc Advisor, or if you're willing to pay for software, Recover Keys is able to scan more deeply than any costless app (including Magical Jelly Bean Keyfinder).

How to find your Office product key

Although you're probably interested in finding just your Office product key, Recover Keys supports over 9000 apps, can scan remote Windows and Mac computers, recover license keys from external storage, scan multiple Windows installations, and can even run from a USB drive. And at £24.95 / $29.95, it'south cheaper than ownership some other copy of Role.

How tin can I detect an Part 2013, 2016 or 2019 product fundamental?

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

Whether Office was pre-installed or not, here's the bad news: Microsoft changed how product keys are stored, so beginning with Microsoft Role 2013,only the last five digits of the 25-character code are stored in the Registry for Office 2013, 2016 and 2019.

What this means is that - as with all Windows 10 product keys - any lawmaking that a keyfinder app shows y'all will not work. If the beginning 20 digits are shown at all for an Role production, they will exist generic.

The useful function, though, is that the last five digits should be the correct ones for your license which means you tin can search your email and estimator's hard bulldoze to see if you lot find any emails or matching files which contain the full product key.

If that fails, your remaining options are to do a total factory reset on your estimator (only merely if there is a recovery sectionalization that includes all the original software that came with it) or to buy a new copy of Office.

Nonetheless, if you weren't aware, at that place are a few excellent costless office suites which piece of work only like Microsoft'southward version and tin can salvage in the same formats, which ways files you create with them can be opened and edited past others using Microsoft Function. See our recommendations for the best Office alternatives here.

If yous need it, here's how to get the product key for Windows itself.