Reinstalling Windows is always a hassle, but if you've lost a few product keys then it could become a real nightmare. Are they on a CD case, a manual, in an old email somewhere? You might not be able to get your system working properly again until you can track them down.
It doesn't have to be this way, though. If you install a product key finder now, then it will scan your PC, and report on any product keys it finds (expect the list to include Windows and Microsoft Office as a minimum, and often many more). Print out the report or save it to disc and you'll always have your keys to hand, should disaster strike - much more convenient.
Which is the best product key finder, then? Good question - there's a lot of competition - but we put 10 of the best free key finders to the test in an effort to find out. Keep reading to find out what we discovered.
Total keys supported: 100+ Supported products include: Windows, Office, CyberLink apps, VMware Workstation, Nero Burning ROM
Free for personal use only, Belarc Advisor is a powerful system information tool which builds up a very detailed picture of your PC hardware and software. This is way more than we need, but you don't have to pay attention to that information if you don't want to - just click Software Licences and you'll find keys for Windows, Office, CyberLink applications, Norton Internet Security and more.
Score: 4/5
Free PC Audit 2.1
Total keys supported: 10+ Supported products include: Windows, Office
Run Free PC Audit and it'll immediately display a summary of your PC hardware, installed and running software. The program only managed to display the Windows and Office product keys on our test PC, but it could still be useful to see and save the full list of your other installed applications. The program doesn't require installation, making it convenient to use, and doesn't include annoying adware - rare amongst this type of tool.
Score: 3/5
KeyFinder Thing 3.1.6
Total keys supported: 90 Supported products include: Windows 7, Office 2010, Visual Studio 2005, Adobe CS2-CS5 products
KeyFinder Thing is a basic key finder tool. It's a little dated now - there's coverage for Microsoft Visual Studio, for instance, but only up to 2005 - so is really only useful as a basic product checker for Windows and a few old games. Even then, the program doesn't fully work with 64-bit systems, and it comes bundled with the AVG Security toolbar for extra irritation.
Score: 1.5/5
LicenseCrawler 1.9.255
Total keys supported: 200+ Supported products include: Windows, Microsoft Office, CyberLink applications
The free-for-personal-use LicenceCrawler takes a unusual approach to finding product keys, simply scanning the Registry and displaying likely-looking values. This can make for a complex report, sometimes including entries which aren't product keys at all, and an in-your-face nag screen is another irritation. The program can find a lot of keys, though, and these are easily saved to a text file for later reference.
Score: 3.5/5
Magical Jelly Bean Keyfinder 2.0.8
Total keys supported: 300 Supported products include: Windows, Office, Nero Burning Rom 5-7
Like many of the competition, Magical Jelly Bean Keyfinder is a little out-of-date; it'll give you your Windows 7 and Office 2010 keys, but for instance couldn't display our Nero 11 key as it doesn't support anything later than Nero 7. Unusually, though, the program has an editable configuration file, so if you're willing to do some work then you may be able to add support for one or two extra keys yourself.
Score: 3/5
MSKeyViewer Plus 2.2.0
Total keys supported: 101 Supported products include: Windows, Microsoft Office, SQL Server 7/2008, WinZip 8-14
MSKeyViewer Plus 2.2.0 is a simple tool which is mainly useful for displaying a few key Microsoft product keys: Windows, Office 97-2010, and so on. There are a few others, but these are notably getting a little dated now (there's support for WinZip 8-14, for instance, but the current version is 16.5). Still, it's portable, easy to use, and will copy your keys to the clipboard with a click for easy saving in some other document.
Score: 3/5
Product Key Finder 2.2.3
Total keys supported: 200 Supported products include: Windows, Microsoft Office
Its attempts to install a browser toolbar didn't get Product Key Finder off to a good start. And the program's product support isn't exactly up-to-date, either: it managed to find the keys for Office 2010 and Windows 7 on our test PC, but that was all. It's extremely easy to use, and can save whatever it finds in a CSV file as a record, but that's not really good enough. You'll get better results elsewhere.
Score: 2/5
ProduKey 1.53
Total keys supported: 15 Supported products include: Windows, Microsoft Office, SQL Server 2000/2005, Exchange Server 2000/2003
ProduKey is a tiny product key finder which only supports a few Microsoft products: Windows, Microsoft Office (2000-2010), SQL Server (2000/2005) and Exchange Server (2000/2003). Fairly basic, then, but the lack of any annoying adware bundled with the program is a plus point. And it has some useful command-line options, which include the ability to display product keys for all the computers on your network from one location.
SIW Home is a free-for-personal-user system information tool. It's actually best at telling you everything there is to know about your PC hardware, but it's not bad at software, either (click Software > Licenses), providing 7 product keys on our test PC and supporting 150+ products overall. This free version can't export your licences as a report, but you can still copy them to the clipboard so they're easy enough to save.
Score: 4/5
Windows Product Key Finder Pro 2.3.0.0
Total keys supported: 10 Supported products include: Windows XP/ Vista/ 7/ Server 2003/ 2008, Office XP/ 2003/ 2007/ 2010
Care is required when installing Windows Product Key Finder Pro, as it tries to install no less than two browser toolbars. Once you've got through setup, though, the program proves a good basic key finder, able to locate product keys for both Windows (including Server 2003 and Server 2008) and Office XP/ 2003/ 2007/ 2010, and save and print them all with a click.
Score: 3/5
Conclusion
If you're looking for a simple product key finder, which will just report the keys for Windows and Microsoft Office, then just about any of our 10 will do the job. But our pick would probably be NirSoft's ProduKey. It's small and basic, but doesn't come bundled with annoying adware (a rarity in this area), and can collect keys from across your network.
If you'd like to try to record more product keys then we'd recommend either SIW Home 2011 or Belarc Advisor. Both are superb system information tools which can also record quite a few software licence details: they're powerful, yet easy to use.
But if you're just after finding the maximum number of product keys alone then an honourable mention has to go to LicenseCrawler. The program's report looks like a dump of your Registry, and really isn't for PC beginners. But if you're an experienced user then you'll find this finds and reports more product keys than any other free tool, and the report can easily be saved to a text file for quick reference when you're next reinstalling.
Mozilla has lashed out at Microsoft for restrictions within the Windows 8 RT operating system that make it impossible for Firefox to compete with Internet Explorer on the platform.
Windows 8 RT, which is the name given to the OS designed especially for ARM-based machines, will give IE special privileges, making it the only browser that than truly run in 'Classic Mode.'
Microsoft has denied the APIs essential for building a modern browser to third-party developers like Google and Mozilla and, as a result, there will be no version of Firefox for the Windows 8 RT platform.
Harvey Anderson, of the Mozilla General Counsel, blogs that this bias towards Microsoft's own browser harks back to the days when users had little choice over software.
Dark days aren't over
He wrote: "Unfortunately, the upcoming release of Windows for the ARM processor architecture and Microsoft's browser practices regarding Windows 8 Metro signal an unwelcome return to the digital dark ages where users and developers didn't have browser choices."
Anderson went on to say: "Windows on ARM prohibits any browser except for Internet Explorer from running in the privileged "Windows Classic" environment.
"In practice, this means that only Internet Explorer will be able to perform many of the advanced computing functions vital to modern browsers in terms of speed, stability, and security to which users have grown accustomed.
"Given that IE can run in Windows on ARM, there is no technical reason to conclude other browsers can't do the same."
Anderson reckons Microsoft's move could be the start of a new era where it seeks to lock-up its operating system and sidestep anti-competition rulings previously brought against it..
He urged the company to stick to its own principles and treat third-party developers fairly.
Music streaming service Deezer has boosted its bid to challenge Spotify by announcing a licensing deal that brings tunes from a host of the world's biggest independent labels.
The French-based site, which has over 20 million members and a library of over 15-million tracks has reached an accord with Merlin, the global rights agency for indies.
The labels represented by Merlin account for a whopping ten per cent of the digital music available worldwide, so the deal comes as a substantial fillip for Deezer as it looks to expand its reach.
It means the artists from Rough Trade (Arcade Fire, The Strokes), Epitaph (Weezer, New Found Glory), Warp (Aphex Twin), Tommy Boy, Phonofile and Sub Pop will now become available.
Increased competition
Deezer, which is now available in 50 countries, arrived on UK soil in October last year armed with an attractive and functional service determined to battle the likes of Spotify and We7.
The company brought along impressive iPad, iPhone and Android apps, as well as the desktop traditional client, but there's no ad-supported free mode.
The company, like Spotify, offers unlimited monthly listening on laptop or desktop computers, while unlocking the mobile apps will cost £9.99 a month.
Along with Spotify, Napster and We7, Deezer now faces increased competition with the arrival of US-based service Rdio in the United Kingdom.
Samsung Galaxy smartphones, tablets and Smart TVs will come loaded with a newly-acquired cloud streaming app that will help the company battle iTunes and iCloud.
The Korean giant announced it has acquired the Silicon Valley-based mSpot service, which brings music and movies through web browsers and dedicated apps.
mSpot music works just like Google Music and the Amazon Cloud Drive be allowing you to upload your collection to the cloud and stream it wherever you go. The company offers 5GB of storage to all users.
The mSpot movies platform is more of a traditional iTunes-like rental portal, but users can sign-up to the Movie Club for better deals.
Straight-up iTunes rival
The app is already available for iPhone, Android and Google TV alongside all of the most popular web browsers, and it will now be installed on all future Samsung Mobile and Smart TV products.
What happens now will be interesting. Will Samsung restrict access to other devices, and develops the service as a straight-up rival to iTunes, while boxing-out the Google Play Store for Android?
Neither company has commented on the price of the acquisition, but reports suggest that it's in the region of $8.8 million (£5.4m).
The popularity of old-fashioned style pictures and retro-looking cameras has been growing quickly.
From apps to film cameras, retro seems to be all the rage. A bit like vintage clothing, old-fashioned photography is becoming ever more popular and desirable.
Instagram has been sweeping the news headlines, what with it being snapped up by Facebook and merging with Hipstamatic. It has perhaps highlighted the increasingly popular trend for retro photography, which seems to be powering through the industry and the world.
Grainy, saturated images appear all over Facebook, and Fuji even reported that the sales figures for film are not decreasing as they first predicted.
But it didn't all begin with Instagram - it just caught the wave of the existing trend.
Film cameras
Perhaps one of the initial emergents of the recent retro photography trend was Lomography's range of film cameras, such as the Lomography La Sardina and Lomo Sprocket Rocket.
Living for the 'point and shoot, just capture the moment' element of photography, these cameras produce instant film photographs with that aged, saturated look that is so desirable at the moment.
Photographer Peter Hong said: "I guess the main thing that pulls you into retro photography is probably the fact that it is different.
"We live in a world where we demand perfection. New cameras have got to be pin-sharp, well built, fast, ergonomically friendly, and so on. Retro offers the opposite. Film cameras aren't perfect; they aren't sharp. There is an excitement with film, of not knowing what you have taken until you get it developed," he explained.
So what's on the market for those who yearn for the smell of film and aesthetics of instant retro photos?
Lomography is perhaps the first port of call. Its latest range includes LomoKinoScope, Lomography Fisheye One Blue, Fisheye One Green and La Sardina Camera & Flash - Belle Starr, all of which are available to buy right now.
Another popular competitor on the film market is the Fujifilm Instax Mini 7S, which produces the similar instant toy camera-style photography.
Retro look cameras
Film isn't for everyone, but there is a wide range of digital cameras that are harking back to days of old with their designs.
If you want a DSLR disguised in film's clothing, then the Fujifilm X100 is dressed in a black leathery coating over a silver frame, giving it that all-important retro look.
A spokesperson for Fujifilm explained: "The retro design of the X100 was inspired by the functionality and ergonomics of cameras from the past."
Adrian Clarke, senior vice president for photo imaging at Fujifilm, said: "I think people loved the styling of it, they thought it was a great combination of smart retro looks."
Another camera to consider is the Fuji X-Pro1. Again it encompasses the retro style, and also has a traditional aperture ring and shutter speed dial.
The Olympus OM-D E-M5, meanwhile, harks back to the 1970s and its own original OM range.
Panasonic on the other hand, told us that it tends not to produce retro-looking cameras because it's a new brand and is keen to be taken seriously in the photography arena.
If inner beauty is more your thing, then there are a number of cameras available that have artistic filters.
The Olympus PEN Lite E-PL3 has a modern look and creative filters that enable users to give their photos a grainy film finish or the old-fashioned pin hole camera look.
This also applies to the Olympus PEN E-P3, which has an added Cross Process filter for recreating an old film processing trick.
The Samsung WB700 has an interesting array of artistic filters, including vignetting, Old film 1 and Old film 2.
If you're looking for a compact camera with a bit more punch, the Panasonic Lumix LX5, offers filters called Retro, Pin Hole and Film Grain.
Retro apps
It's no surprise that the phone industry noticed this retro photography trend and decided to join in.
The iPhone offered up Instagram, an app that is now extremely popular and has recently also been made available for Android. By installing Instagram, mobile users snap a picture using the iPhone's camera and then select a certain type of filter to apply to the photo. The photo is then intended to be shared across the social media platforms of Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr.
Retro style photos appeared all over these social networks, demonstrating the love for the old-fashioned style of photography.
Its popularity grew with the recent merger between Instagram and Hipstamatic, to produce an advanced editing and retro photo sharing experience.
Hipstamatic had essentially the same idea as Instagram, enabling users to create retro-looking photos that could be easily shared among friends.
Instagram CEO Kevin Systrom explained that: "A trend was emerging in users editing their photos with Hipstamatic before uploading to Instagram - and establishing such a partnership made sense."
With the trend for retro photography still growing, it's worth hedging a bet that the market will see more apps and more retro cameras in the future.
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