You have need of the key for your copy of Windows XP, but you cannot find it? So how can you find it?

There are many ways to obtain your Windows XP product key. The simplest way is to look at the outer casing of your computer's CPU. Computers being sold have a decal affixed to the outside cabinet of your system that contains the activation key and verifies your version of operating system is a genuine Microsoft product.

However, circumstances can make locating this decal difficult, or it could have been removed, or chewed on by a family pet making it illegible. If you purchased an upgrade program of XP you will not have the correct key on the outside of your cabinet. Here is how you can retrieve your key.

The simplest manner to recover your activation key of windows as well as many other computer programs installed on your computer is as simple as 1 2 3.

1. Using your favorite internet browser, point your computer to http://www.belarc.com. This site offers free software which is very informative about the programs and state of your computer.

2. Select the "FREE DOWNLOAD" tab along the top of the page. Download the file from this site advisor.exe saving it to your computer hard drive in a location you can find. This is a small file (1.6 meg) and should be a quick download. Run the program and allow it access through your firewall. If you prevent any aspect, you may not get a full report.

3. Examine your report. It will open in your web browser and can be printed. This report contains a valuable summary of your computer system. The final report contains many useful items as well as the key for your version of Windows. In addition to your key, you will see how many memory slots you have, the drives, information on your processor, if you have a Dell computer, your system service tag is also displayed here as well as the make and model of your system.

Maintaining a copy of this report can be beneficial when you are planning an upgrade of your system, or if you need to retrieve keys from other software. Your ISP IP address, MAC address, and Bios information are all readily accessible.

If you have made changes to your system and/or installed new software, simply run another report and keep it with your computer records for referral.

Learn more about this author, B. L. Babb.
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