The biggest problem after a fresh Windows installation is obvious – you have to start installing all the softwares from scratch. This includes installing your browsers, office programs, media players and so on. Most of the applications come free these days but there are some applications which are not (e.g Microsoft Office, Microsoft frontpage etc). And to install them, you have to find the old product keys which came with the CD or DVD pack you bought years ago.

Now, if you have lost the CD case (high chances that you would), the product keys can be extracted from Windows registry. Wouldn’t it be wise to first extract all the product keys of software and keep them at a safe location? This ensures full installation of programs after a system format. This article shows you ways to extract the serial and product keys of application software in Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7.
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