How to View Saved Wi-Fi Passwords on Windows 10?

If you’ve forgotten the password for connecting to your Wi-Fi network, you can find it on any Windows 10 devices that have previously connected to that wireless network. By default, Windows 10 saves passwords (keys) of all Wi-FI networks to which the device has ever been connected. In this article, we will show you how to view passwords for saved Wi-FI networks on Windows 10.

The current password of the Wi-Fi network to which your Windows device is currently connected can be viewed from the graphical interface of the Control Panel.

Open “Settings” > “Network and Internet” > “Status” > “View network adapters and change connection settings”;
Hint. You can open the Network Connections Control Panel dialog by clicking Win+R > ncpa.cpl > Enter;
Right-click your wireless adapter and select Status;
Click the Wireless Properties button, go to the Security tab and check the Show characters option;
The password for connecting to your Wi-Fi router will be shown as plain text in the field Network security key.

This method is quite simple, but it allows you to see only the password for the current Wi-Fi network.

You can list passwords for all saved wireless Wi-Fi networks using the command prompt.

Run Command Prompt (cmd.exe) or PowerShell console as an administrator;
Run the command:
```
netsh wlan show profile
```
You will see a list of all known Wi-Fi networks. They are listed in the User Profiles section. To display the connection key for a specific Wi-Fi network, copy its name and run the command:
```
netsh wlan show profile Xiaomi_12FS key=clear
```
Hint. If the name of the Wi-FI profile contains spaces, it must be enclosed in quotes.

Note that this command returned the network name (SSID) and all used settings for connecting to the Wi-Fi access point. The network password is displayed in cleartext in the Key Content field.

Profile Xiaomi_12FS on interface HoweWIFi:

=======================================================================

Applied: All User Profile

Profile information

-------------------

Version : 1

Type : Wireless LAN

Name : Xiaomi_12FS

Control options :

Connection mode : Connect automatically

Network broadcast : Connect only if this network is broadcasting

AutoSwitch : Do not switch to other networks

MAC Randomization : Disabled

Connectivity settings

---------------------

Number of SSIDs : 1

SSID name : "Xiaomi_12FS"

Network type : Infrastructure

Radio type : [ Any Radio Type ]

Vendor extension : Not present

Security settings

-----------------

Authentication : WPA2-Personal

Cipher : CCMP

Authentication : WPA2-Personal

Cipher : Unknown

Security key : Present

Key Content : Derevnya

Cost settings

-------------

Cost : Unrestricted

Congested : No

Approaching Data Limit : No

Over Data Limit : No

Roaming : No

Cost Source : Default

If you only want to display the network security key, use the command:
```
netsh wlan show profile Xiaomi_20F5 key=clear| Find “Key Content”
```

Using PowerShell, you can display only a list of SSIDs and keys:

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

Hint. Wi-Fi profiles are stored in XML files located in the directory C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Wlansvc\Profiles\Interfaces\.

Thus, in Windows 10, you can see the passwords for all saved Wi-Fi networks to which your device has previously connected.

Author
Recent Posts

Cyril Kardashevsky

I enjoy technology and developing websites. Since 2012 I'm running a few of my own websites, and share useful content on gadgets, PC administration and website promotion.

Latest posts by Cyril Kardashevsky (see all)