Those of us who install or update our operating systems through downloads rarely remember to write down the product key. Or, if we do remember to write it down, you can almost bet we will misplace the Post-it where we scribbled it.

So, to save us all the heartache of not having that expensive product key in the event of a system crash, let’s all recover our Windows 7 or XP keys right now and save them to an external hard drive, or at least a USB drive. Here’s the easiest way to do it:

Go to WinKeyFinder.com and download the Simple Keyfinder. It is a very small 38k zip file. The product information says it works with Windows 2000, 2003, XP, and Vista, but we tested it in Windows 7 and it worked like a charm.

download simple keyfinder

Double-click the zip file you just downloaded and choose extract all files at the top of the menu.

simple keyfinder zip

In the menu that appears, browse to choose a place for Simple Keyfinder to extract, then click extract at the bottom right off the window. Make sure the box is checked next to Show extracted files when complete.

extract simple keyfinder

A new window will appear listing the contents of the unzipped file. Double-click SimpleKey_Finder. If windows gives you a warning screen, click run.

double-click simple keyfinder

This will open a window telling you your product key.

keyfinder black window

Don’t worry about writing it down—the program creates a text file containing the product key in the same folder where you extracted it. By default, the file is named WinKeyFinder_found_Key.

keyfinder res