How To Find WiFi Password in Windows 10 & 11

Imagine this scenario: For some time now, you’ve been using your wireless connection at home on your Windows 10 PC and lately, you’ve acquired a new tablet or a smartphone and need to connect it to your Wireless network. The only thing that’s standing in your way is the WIFI password. Yet, unfortunately, you cannot remember the password. So you better search into the system.

The example above illustrates a common occurrence: people forget their wi-fi passwords. Understandably so, because once the PC connects automatically, everything is pretty much set, and when weeks, months, or even years elapse without ever changing or reconnecting afresh with the password, chances are high that users will forget their password combination and be compelled to reset the router or access point.

This doesn’t have to be so. If you are facing such a situation, don’t panic. Fortunately, there are a few tricks that will help you find your old WIFI password and get your life back on track. That’s a relieving statement to know.

How To Get Your Password Back

There are a couple of ways you can achieve this. Let’s take a look at the most feasible.

Method 1: Recovering the Password From Network Settings

To find the wifi password in Windows 10, follow the following steps;

1. Hover and Right click on the Wi-Fi icon located at the bottom left corner of Windows 10 Taskbar and click on ‘Open Network and Internet Settings’.
   
2. Under ‘Change your network settings’ click on ‘Change Adapter Options’.
   Similarly, you can access the ‘Change Adapter options’ selection by clicking on the ‘Start’ button, selecting the ‘Settings’ option and finally clicking on ‘Network and Internet’ option. At the right pane under ‘change your network settings’ locate Change Adapter options’
   
3. In the next Window, locate your WiFi network adapter and right click on it. Select ‘Status’ option.
4. In the resulting ‘Wi-Fi status pop-up locate and click on ‘Wireless Properties’ button.
5. Click on the ‘Security’ Tab in the pop-up window that appears and check the ‘Show characters’ checkbox.
   And voila! the encrypted password will be displayed in plain text in the ‘Network Security Key’ text field. ????

Method 2: Recovering the WiFi Password on Command Prompt in Windows 10 & 11

For tech-savvy users, the command prompt tool comes in handy and the entire process of uncovering the password is reduced to a few short commands. To accomplish this,

1. Type ‘Command Prompt in the Cortana search bar. Right-click as select ‘Run as Administrator‘option
   
2. To display a list of Wi-Fi connections you have recently connected to in the past run the command below

   netsh wlan show profile

   

   
   Below ‘User Profiles’ be sure to find the list of all Wi-Fi networks recently used.

3. To reveal the password of one of the networks, run

   netsh wlan show profile "Wi-FI name" key=clear

   Replace the “Wi-Fi name” with the actual SSID of the Wireless network. In the example below, I’m going to reveal the password of ‘Valley Office’ Wi-Fi network.

   netsh wlan show profile "Valley Office" key=clear

   Scroll down and Locate ‘Key Content’ under ‘Security Settings’.
   The unencrypted password will be displayed in plain text characters.

   

Copy the password and use it to authenticate your new device. Hopefully, If the management of the place has not changed the password, it should work just fine.

Method 3: Using PowerShell

Love using command prompt but find it difficult to access in the latest versions of Windows? Then you can use the same above-mentioned commands in PowerShell as well.

As a bonus, you can list all the passwords in a nice table in PowerShell, you can run the following command:

(netsh wlan show profiles) | Select-String “\:(.+)$” | %{$name=$_.Matches.Groups[1].Value.Trim(); $_} | %{(netsh wlan show profile name=”$name” key=clear)} | Select-String “Key Content\W+\:(.+)$” | %{$pass=$_.Matches.Groups[1].Value.Trim(); $_} | %{[PSCustomObject]@{ PROFILE_NAME=$name;PASSWORD=$pass }} | Format-Table -AutoSize

Alternatively, you can download the following pre-made file, right-click on it, and select “Run with PowerShell:”

Show All Saved WiFi Passwords.ps1

Method 4: Using a Purely Visual Medium

If none of the above methods work well for your needs, then we might suggest something that’s so straightforward that even your grandma could use it.

Introducing the WirelessKeyView app, a small program that does exactly what its name implies. You can download it from here and select the version that’s best suited for your OS. The tool is small and very handy both for admins and for people who aren’t all that tech-savvy. Just a little disclaimer before you go on to download the software:

Do be aware that Windows Defender and other antivirus programs might detect this small tool as malware and mark it as unsafe to be opened. Ignore that message and open it anyway. The AV software gives out a false-positive because it detects the fact that the program can read your WiFi password as long as you give it admin privileges. Simple as that. So just run the program and move on.

Recovering Your Forgotten Passwords in Windows 11, 10, 8.1, 8, and Windows 7

These procedures of password retrieval are pretty close to the ones found in Windows 10 and 11, except they work even on older versions of the OS. If you have an older computer around the house, try these out to get the best possible results.

Method 1 – Using the Network and Sharing settings

1. First, right click on the Wi-Fi icon and select “Open Network and Sharing Center” option
   This can alternatively be accessed by clicking on Start > Control Panel
   Under ‘Control Panel’ Head out to ‘Network and Sharing Center’
2. Right click on the Current Wi-Fi SSID as defined by ‘Connections’ and select ‘Status’
   
3. Click on ‘Wireless Properties’
4. Click on the Security tab and check the ‘Show characters’ option at which point, the unencrypted password will be displayed in plain text
   

Method 2 – Using Command Prompt

As earlier seen in Windows 10 & 8, the procedure of unveiling the forgotten password remains the same Open Command Prompt with Administrative privileges.

1. Run the following command to display a history of Wi-Fi networks accessed by your PC.

   netsh wlan show profiles

2. Scroll down and locate ‘User Profiles’. The list of Wi-Fi SSIDs will be displayed.
   To reveal a password for any one of them the last time you made a connection run

    

   netsh wlan show profile "Wi-FI name" key=clear

   Where “Wi-FI” name denotes the SSID of the Wi-Fi connection.

3. Next, scroll down to ‘Security Settings’ and locate ‘Key content’
   Right adjacent the last plaintext password used of the Wi-Fi you connected to will be displayed.

Using a Router’s Web Interface to Display the Password

I’m sure by now you already have your password back ???? Fantastic, isn’t it? If for some reason you are still stuck, logging in to your Wi-Fi router via a web interface and locating the Wi-Fi settings can do the trick. Here, you can find all your Wi-Fi network settings. The assumption here is that your home Wi-Fi router supports configuration via a browser. For popular home router vendors see Dlink and see NetGear.

In the example below, I’m logged in to my D-Link home router via the router’s default gateway – 172.16.10.1. The default gateway is the main thing that you’ll have to find in order to display the password. Search Google for “YOUR ROUTER MODEL default gateway” (and replace YOUR ROUTER MODEL with the actual model or your router) to know what yours is.

To view my password, I’ll navigate to ‘Wi-Fi Connections’ Tab at the Left Pane.

Next, I’ll click on ‘Manual Wireless Connection Setup’. This opens a webpage that contains all the information you need about your Wireless network including

1. SSID
2. Security Mode
3. Cipher Type
4. Wireless Channel
5. Network Key or Password

Scrolling down, the network key will be displayed in plain text as shown.

Other web-based router vendors have a similar setup that will also allow you to navigate to Wi-Fi settings an unearth your Password. If you wish, you can reset your Wireless network’s SSID and Password as well and start all over. These changes come to effect upon a reboot of your router.

Suggested Read: USB Device Not Recognized

Summing Up

In this article, we have outlined steps to take when you want to find your lost password. With the handy tricks outlined, it should now be a walk in the park getting it back. Ultimately, when your efforts hit a snag, you can always give a shot at resetting the Wi-Fi’s password. We hope that we have addressed your worries and life can go on again.

Was this article helpful to you? Or do you recommend a shorter technique on how to address this similar problem? Let’s discuss it in the comments section below!

Do you got any more technical questions about your Windows 10 PC? Try visiting our website. You could find a topic that might help you with your concerns. Or you might have a direct question like How To Use Your Hardrive As RAM In Windows 10.