Windows 10 comes in different flavors. The most common editions are Home, Pro, Pro for Workstations. There are educational and enterprise editions. When you are looking for buying a key for Windows 10, there are different license type available. The Retail version or the Full Packaged Product, you can buy from online or from a retail store. The Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM ) keys naturally come with the product and Volume Licensing keys are meant for organizations. I will explain in detail.
Retail Key: This key is for Full Packaged Product (FPP) or for the boxed copy. You can buy Windows OS from a retail merchant or can directly purchase from Microsoft Store or from other reputed online shops.
OEM Key: This keys are issued by the Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) and are not-for-resale and not intended to transfer to another computer. You will get these keys if you bought a laptop or desktop that comes with a pre-installed Windows version.
Volume Key: These are meant for a large group of computers. KMS (Key Management Services) Client and Volume MAK (Multiple Activation Key) product keys are volume license keys and are not-for-resale. These are normally issued by organizations (eg: Universities) for use on client computers associated with the organization.
To view Operating System Inforamtion
Select the start button, then go to settings, then about. Simply type about in Windows search bar will display ‘about your PC‘.
Another method, press the Windows logo key + R, opens up ‘Run’ window. Type winver in the open box, and select OK, you can see the version of Windows in a popup box. You can just type winver in Windows search box will display winver Run command.
By using Commands
Don’t be afraid to work with Command prompt. Just type cmd in the Windows search box. Windows ‘Command Prompt’ will display as the first search result. Right click on the ‘Command Prompt‘, select and click ‘Run as administrator‘. Then click ‘yes‘. The command prompt window is opened up, and displays: C:\windows\system32>
Type slmgr /dli
Just wait for a second til a popup box will display with Windows information. The box will display the current license information of Windows with activation status and last 5 characters of the partial product key.
You can also check the following commands to obtain various information. Just type slmgr , it displays the usage of SLMgr (refer to the screenshot below).
Typing slmgr /dlv
Displays detailed license information, it is similar to -dli but offers more information.
Typing slmgr /xpr
It displays the expiration date of the current license.
