Wi-Fi connectivity has become an essential aspect of modern living, evident in its prevalence in various settings such as coffee shops, restaurants, offices, homes, and educational institutions. Given the sheer number of Wi-Fi networks and their respective passwords, it's understandable if you find it challenging to remember all of them.
If you've recently altered your Wi-Fi password or established it a while back and now need to share it or use it on another device but can't recall it, there's no need for concern. Your Windows 11 system, like many others, keeps a log of all the networks (SSID) to which you've previously connected, inclusive of their passwords (security keys). There are multiple methods you can employ to access the saved Wi-Fi passwords on your Windows 11 computer.
In cases where you haven't modified the default password provided by the Wi-Fi device or have just reset your router, you can simply refer to the password located on the back of the modem, next to the SSID. However, if you've changed this default password and can't remember it, we are here to guide you on how to retrieve these forgotten Wi-Fi passwords.
Find Your WiFi Password using Settings on Windows 11
If you have forgotten your Wi-Fi password, you can get it via Windows 11 Settings. Remember, with this method, you can only view a password of a Wi-Fi network if you’re already connected to that network. Follow the steps below to get your Wi-Fi password:
To open System Settings, click the Start button and select the ‘Settings’ icon or press the shortcut key Windows + i.
In Windows 11 Settings, click the ‘Network & internet’ tab on the left pane, then scroll down and select the ‘Advanced network settings’ option on the right.
In the Advanced network settings page, scroll down and select ‘More network adapter options’ under Related settings.
This will open the Network Connections control panel. Here, right-click on your Wi-fi adapter and select ‘Status’ or just double-click on the Wi-fi adapter.
In the Wi-Fi ‘Status’ dialog box, select ‘Wireless Properties’.
This will show another popover dialog box, ‘Wireless Network Properties’. In that, switch to the ‘Security’ tab and check the ‘Show characters’ option.
Now you will see the password of your Wi-fi Network in the Network security key field, as shown below.
View WiFi Password on Windows 11 via Control Panel
Another similar method you can use to find Wifi passwords is by using the control panel.
First, open the control panel on Windows 11 by searching for ‘Control Panel’ in Windows search.
In the Control Panel, click the ‘View network status and tasks’ link under Network and Internet category.
Then, select ‘Change adapter settings’ in the Network and Sharing Center panel.
You can also directly access the Network Connections in Control panel by pressing Windows+R keys and typing ncpa.cpl in the Run command, and then clicking on ‘OK’.
In the Network Connections window, right-click on your Wi-fi adapter and select ‘Status’ or just double-click on the Wi-fi adapter.
Next, click on ‘Wireless Properties’ in the WiFi Status window.
Now, go to the ‘Security’ tab and then check the box in front of ‘Show characters’ to reveal your WiFi password.
View Saved WiFi Password on Windows 11 via Command Prompt
With the above methods, you can only view the password of the currently connected Wifi network. But what if you want to find the password of a disconnected (currently not connected) network or an out-of-range Wifi network?
You can use a command prompt to view the password of the currently connected network as well as any of the networks you have connected to previously. However, this method won’t work if you have clicked the ‘Forget’ option to forget a network.
First, open the command prompt by searching for ‘Command prompt’ or ‘CMD’ on the Windows search bar.
Now, type the following command and press Enter to get a list of all the wireless network profiles saved on your computer:
netsh wlan show profiles
Now run the below command to reveal the Wifi password or key for a specific Wi-Fi SSID (network name):
netsh wlan show profile name=“Wi-Fi NAME” key=clearReplace WiFi Name in the given command with WiFi SSID (Wi-Fi network name) that you want to see the saved password or key for:
netsh wlan show profile name="MAD HOUSE" key=clearIn our case, the WiFi name is ‘MAD HOUSE’. You can either use the name of a network that is not connected now or out of range on your computer as long the name is listed under User Profiles (which you got using the previous command).
This will display all information about the Wi-Fi network as well as its password. Scroll down to the ‘Security Settings’ section, and you will see the password of the Wi-Fi network next to ‘Key Content’.
If you want to get the password without any additional information about the network, then run this command instead:
netsh wlan show profile name="WiFi Name" key=clear | find /I "Key Content"Make sure to replace WiFi Name in the given command with WiFi SSID (Wi-Fi network name) that you want to see the saved password or key for:
netsh wlan show profile name="vivo 1802" key=clear | find /I "Key Content"In our case, we used the WiFi name is “vivo 1802” and the Key Content (password) we got for it is “daenerys” as shown in the below screenshot.
View the list of all saved WiFi passwords on Windows 11 using PowerShell
All the above methods can only help you find one Wi-Fi network password at a time. But there is a way you can use to find the list of all saved WiFi passwords on Windows 11 using PowerShell.
To do that, first, you need to launch Windows PowerShell. You can either launch the PowerShell app by searching for it in Windows search, or you can open PowerShell in Windows Terminal.
Once the PowerShell opens, type or simply copy and paste the following command in the window, then hit the Enter key:
(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 Now, PowerShell will display all the saved networks that your computer is connected to and their passwords in a nice little table, as shown below.
You can also run the same command in the Windows PowerShell through Windows Terminal to get the same result.
View Wifi passwords with Third-party Softwares
You can also use third-party software to reveal all the saved Wi-Fi passwords in your Windows 11 PC. These are the two free software you can use to retrieve all the Wifi passwords saved in Windows 11:
- WirelessKeyView
- Magical Jelly Bean Wi-Fi password revealer
You just have to download, install and run the app to find your passwords.
That is all.
