How to Recover a Forgotten Wi-Fi Password

Most of the times people keep forgetting their passwords, but if there’s one kind of password that no one bothers to remember it has to be the Wi-Fi password. People configure Wi-Fi networks once, enter the password on all their devices and forget about it completely. Until you buy a new phone, or a guest wants to access the network on their smartphone – that’s when search for the Wi-Fi password ensues, before giving up and resetting your wireless router. Before you head down that path, here are a few tips to recover your saved Wi-Fi passwords.

Note that this is not a guide to hack into Wi-Fi networks. That is illegal and could land you into far more serious trouble than you probably realise. These steps are only for recovering your own Wi-Fi password, and are impossible if you haven’t already got access to the network on one of your devices. If you have forgotten the password of your Wi-Fi network, follow these steps to recover it.

Windows

While you might come across several apps that claim to let you recover saved Wi-Fi passwords, you don’t need any of those on Windows PCs. Even if you don’t have administrator access on your PC, you can look up the Wi-Fi password by following these steps. Note that this method only works when the security is set to Personal – if you’re connected to an Enterprise network, such as your office Wi-Fi, then this method will not show the password.

1. Using a PC that is connected to the Wi-Fi network in question, go to Start > Control Panel > Network and Sharing Centre. On Windows 8 computers, you can tap Windows key + C, click Search and look for Network and Sharing Center.

2. Click Change adapter settings on the left sidebar.

3. Right-click the Wi-Fi network you’re using and click on Status.

4. Click Wireless properties.

5. Click the Security tab.

6. Now you will see the name of the Wi-Fi network and the hidden password. Check Show characters to reveal the saved password.