Ever wanted to read out the UEFI stored Windows key and probably automatically try to activate Windows with a single script?
The UEFI stored Windows license key is essential due to the fact that you don’t have a physical license anymore and you should keep it just in case for situations like your motherboard was exchanged and the key not transferred properly. I came across similar situations and was glad that I had the key.
But the script below does more then just reading and displaying the key – it will try to activate Windows as well.
Please note – it is wise to combine the read out of the key with an export and save method – like writing it to a database – this script will only show the basic functionality – but this is the most important part already.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 | $service = get-wmiObject -query 'select * from SoftwareLicensingService' if($key = $service.OA3xOriginalProductKey){ Write-Host 'Product Key:' $service.OA3xOriginalProductKey $service.InstallProductKey($key) }else{ Write-Host 'Key not found.' } |
The next two lines help additionally – if you create this batch file as well and store both files in the same directory, you simply can right click the .CMD file and execute it with elevated rights (run as administrator) and it will make your live even easier. This is just a simple trick to bypass some restrictions that you might encounter while trying to execute a PowerShell script with elevated rights and bypassing the execution policy for scripts at the same time.
1 2 | powershell.exe -executionpolicy unrestricted -file "%~dp0\ReadUEFIWindowsKeyAndActivateWindows.ps1" pause |