Whenever you connect to a wireless network, your Windows 10 computer remembers the password
in case you want to connect to it again in future.
So it sounds like your computer must keep a list somewhere of all the WiFi networks
you’ve ever joined, and all their passwords. Is it possible to find the password for a
wireless network you’ve joined in the past? The answer is yes, and I’m going to show
you how to do it. If you need to know your wireless key, then
the first thing you should always do is look at the sticker on the router, or ask the person
who set it up for you. But obviously, this isn’t always possible.
In this video I’m going to show you a couple of ways to extract the saved wireless passwords
from your computer. First, I’ll show you a really easy way to
see the password of the WiFi network you’re connected to right now.
Then I’ll show you how to view a list of all the wireless networks you’ve connected
to in the past, and how to reveal their passwords. And in case you have a Mac, you might want
to view my other video on how to reveal your saved WiFi passwords on a Mac.
So, let’s get started. First, let’s say that the Windows 10 computer
you’re on right now is connected to WiFi, but you need to find out the WiFi password
so you can get another computer or gadget connected.
What I’m about to show you will only work if you’re an administrator on this computer.
But if you’re not sure, try it anyway and it might just work.
Click on the Start Menu, then type Control. Click on Control Panel.
When Control Panel opens, look in the top right corner and make sure this is set to
Large Icons. Click on Network and Sharing Centre.
You should be looking at the network you’re currently connected to. It should say Connections:
WiFi. If it doesn’t, you’re probably plugged in with an ethernet cable. You’ll need to
skip to the next part of this video where I’ll show you how to view the list of saved
WiFi networks. But if you do see WiFi here, click on it.
A box will appear, telling you how long you’ve been connected to the WiFi. Click Wireless
Properties. Then click Security.
And this is where your WiFi password is. Click the box for Show characters, and it will be
revealed. Don’t worry, this is not my real WiFi password.
Next, let’s see how to bring up a list of all the Wireless networks your computer has
ever connected to, and reveal their passwords. We need to right-click on the Start Menu,
and click Windows PowerShell (Admin). The PowerShell window will appear, and you’ll
see a blinking cursor waiting for you to type something in.
Type in the following: netsh wlan show profiles Then press Enter.
This is the list of all the WiFi networks I’ve joined on my laptop, but I’ve blurred
out the details of most of them. I’m interested in finding out the password
for the network called Daves WiFi, so I’m going to make a note of that exact name.
Now we need to type another command: netsh wlan show profile name=”Daves WiFi” key=clear
And press Enter. We can see all sorts of technical information,
but we’re just interested in the Security Settings, and this line here - Key Content.
This value is the WiFi password. Once you’ve made a note of this, you can
close the PowerShell, and see if you can get your other device to connect to the WiFi using
the password. Hopefully one of these methods worked for
you. Please let me know in the comments below which one you were successful with, and please
give this video the thumbs up if I helped you.
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button. Thanks for watching.