I’m posting this just in case anyone out there has purchased a "downloadable" Apple product.

A long time ago I purchased QuickTime Pro because it handles the Apple MOV format best since it’s an Apple product. It also exports FLV files quite nicely (and notably faster than doing it the Macromedia way).

But let’s say for the moment you’re going to "rebuild" your computer and reinstall everything over again. How do you retrieve your already-purchased product key since it was never a "boxed" app? It’s mentioned nowhere in the QuickTime app after you place it in there. How do you get it?

The answer is to retrieve your purchased key from the store.apple.com web site where you bought it from.

Mac users are already well familiar with this because many of their purchases are stored within the online version of the Apple Store. However, Windows users don’t necessarily go there too often (I certainly don’t), so here’s a quick primer:

1. Go to http://store.apple.com, you’ll see this:

2. Click Account at the top right next to Cart.

It looks like this:

Note the top of the image where it says Account. That’s what you click on.

3. Click Downloadable software purchases.

QuickTime is a downloadable product, so that’s where your product key information would be located.

This is what it looks like:

4. Login with your Apple ID.

Your Apple ID is your e-mail address.

If you forgot what your password is, the password retrieval system (as I can tell you from personal experience) works very nicely and will get you back on track fast.

5. Once logged in, copy your registered product key information into your QuickTime app like you did originally when you bought it.

You’ll see this:

(The key is pixelated on purpose for obvious reasons)

Your QuickTime product key(s) will be shown which you can then insert into your QuickTime app to upgrade to the Pro version.