How to view and recover a Wi-Fi password stored in Windows 10

If you have forgotten your Wi-Fi password in Windows 10, there is no obvious way to see what it is even if you are an administrator. Although you don't need third-party tools to see it, it requires several steps. Windows 10 includes built-in options to view the saved wifi password. Here is how it can be done.

When you needed to view the password for a wireless network connection, it was previously possible in Windows 7 by clicking the Network icon and then right clicking the wifi connection and choosing Status. From there, you could access Wireless Properties and switch to the Security tab to see the password. Now in Windows 10, you need to use Control Panel.

While Microsoft is moving all settings from Control Panel to the new Settings app, this particular option has not moved there yet. As of this writing, the most recent Windows 10 version is build 14316. The option we need exists exclusively in the Control Panel.

Here is how to access it.

1. Open Control Panel.
2. Go to the following location:

   Control Panel\Network and Internet\Network and Sharing Center.

   

3. On the left, click Change adapter settings:
   
4. The following window will be opened:There, double click your connection to open its status window.
5. In Status, click the button called Wireless Properties
   
6. In the next dialog, go to the Security tab and tick the option Show characters.
   

Now you will be able to see the stored password.

Alternatively, you can use the console netsh tool. It should be familiar to readers from our previous articles Backup and restore Wireless network profiles in Windows 10 and How to set up Windows 10 ad hoc wireless hotspot. In addition, netsh will allow you to see passwords stored for all wireless networks and not just the current network.

To view and recover a Wi-Fi password stored in Windows 10, you need to do the following:

1. Open an elevated command prompt.
2. First, it is a good idea to see which wireless profiles you have stored in Windows 10. Type the following command:

   netsh wlan show profiles

   In my case, there is only one wireless profile named "WinaeroWiFi":

3. Run the following command to see its password:

   netsh wlan show profile name="WinaeroWiFi" key=clear

   

4. Repeat this procedure for all the profiles for which you wish to see the stored password.
5. You can also list all networks with passwords at once using the following command:

   netsh wlan show profile * key=clear

   
   This will populate all wireless profiles and stored passwords on your PC.

That's it.