Planning to reinstall all of the software on your computer? Do you know where your product keys and software serial numbers are? Ever since Microsoft started attaching their activation codes to CD sleeves, the sleeve has become as valuable as the CD. Lose it, and you are up the creek, without a paddle…until people found out they could recover and decode Microsoft’s keys from the system registry. Here’s a nifty tool to run prior to wiping your computer. It recovers serial keys for Office and Windows for free. The company that makes it is called Nirsoft and the software you need is Produkey.

If you try to reinstall your software on the same computer and find that Office or Windows thinks it has already been registered too many times, choose the phone activation method and follow the prompts. You’ll end up talking to someone in India who will help you get your activation code (not the product key) for installing on the same computer.