Which means that those product key finder programs aren’t quite as helpful because they used to be. Unfortunately, Microsoft changed how they handled Microsoft Office product keys starting with Office 2013, storing only area of the product key in your local computer.

If you’re familiar with product keys and just how they work, you might think that the Office 2016/2013 product secret is stored, encrypted, within the Windows Registry, like older versions of Office and many other programs do. So what do you do if you need to reinstall the program but you’ve lost this important, 25-digit installation code? No doubt you’ve already tried all the expected “looking around” but there are some more things you can try that you may not have access to been aware of.

Microsoft Office 20, like all versions of Office and many other programs you have to pay for, requires that you enter a unique product key throughout the installation process, proving, to some extent, that you own the software.

Office 2013 key finder