How to Find Your Saved Wi-Fi Passwords
1.Windows: The Secret Keeper
Your PC holds many secrets. Some of them are built right into the operating system. Others are put there by you. Specifically, I'm talking about your saved passwords such as those for Wi-Fi networks.
The thing is, once you share these secrets with Windows it doesn't like to give them up. That can be a problem if you've forgotten your password and want to share it with someone else, or simply want to transfer your passwords to a new PC.
The good news is there are several methods you can use to uncover your saved Wi-Fi passwords when you need to.
2.The Easy Way
Get started by right-clicking the Wi-Fi icon on the far right of the taskbar. Next, select Open Network and Sharing Center from the context menu
3. The Control Panel
This will open a new Control Panel window. In the Control Panel you
should see at the top of the window and to the right a blue link that
says "Wi-Fi" and the name of your router. Click that blue link.
4.Wi-Fi Status
This will open the Wi-Fi Status window. Now click the Wireless Properties button.
5. Reveal Your Password
This opens yet another window with two tabs. Click on the one called Security. Then click the Show characters check box to reveal your password in the "Network security key" text entry box. Copy down your password and you're done
6. The Slightly Harder Way
Windows 10's built-in method for uncovering passwords is great, but
what if you want to find a password for a network you're not currently
connected to?
Password Revealer is a free, dead easy program to use that will tell
you everything you need to know about the Wi-Fi networks your PC has
used in the past. The one tricky thing about this program is that if
you're not careful it will also download and install an extra program
(AVG Zen, at this writing). This is a sponsored download, and it's how
the company supports its free offerings, but for the end user it's
incredibly annoying.
All you have to do is make sure you take it slow when installing Wi-Fi Password Revealer (read every screen carefully!). When you come to the screen offering you a free trial of some other program just uncheck the box to install and continue as normal.
Once you've installed the program, it should start-up straight away. If it doesn't you'll find it under Start > All apps (All programs in earlier versions of Windows).
Now you'll see a small window listing every single Wi-Fi network your computer has saved to its memory complete with passwords. The listing is pretty easy to read, but just to be clear the name of the Wi-Fi network is listed in the "SSID" column and the passwords is in the "password" column.
To copy a password, click on the cell containing the password you
want, right-click, and then from the context menu that appears select Copy selected password.
Sometimes you may see passwords prepended with the word "hex." This means the password has been converted into hexadecimal digits. If that's the case you may not be able to retrieve the password. That said, you should still try to use the "hex" password as sometimes the password hasn't actually been converted at all.
For that we'll need some help from third-party software. There are a number of options you can use, but the one I prefer is Magical Jelly Bean's Wi-Fi Password Revealer. This company also makes a product key finder that works well for finding the activation code for Windows in versions XP, 7, and
7.Watch Out for Bundleware
All you have to do is make sure you take it slow when installing Wi-Fi Password Revealer (read every screen carefully!). When you come to the screen offering you a free trial of some other program just uncheck the box to install and continue as normal.
8. The Password List
Now you'll see a small window listing every single Wi-Fi network your computer has saved to its memory complete with passwords. The listing is pretty easy to read, but just to be clear the name of the Wi-Fi network is listed in the "SSID" column and the passwords is in the "password" column.
9. Right-click to Copy
Sometimes you may see passwords prepended with the word "hex." This means the password has been converted into hexadecimal digits. If that's the case you may not be able to retrieve the password. That said, you should still try to use the "hex" password as sometimes the password hasn't actually been converted at all.
10.Learn More
That's about all there is to Wi-Fi Password Revealer. If you're
interested, this little utility tells you more than just the name and
password of each Wi-Fi network your PC has stored. It can also tell you
about the authentication type it uses (WPA2 is preferred), as well as
the type of encryption algorithm, and the connection type. Diving into
that information is really getting into the weeds of networking.
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