We’ve all been there, wireless passwords tend get lost.

There are several tools to retrieve the missing information, but I strongly believe that the less stuff you download from the web, the safer you are. Here are three different solutions to retrieve a locally stored password.

PowerShell

If you’re running Windows 7 or later you will be able to retrieve (and format) the password using the line of code below. Make sure to run the console as Administrator:

(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 

wifi-passwords

Command Prompt

If you’re running older versions of Windows you can use the same command and scroll through the information manually. Make sure to run the console as Administrator:

netsh wlan show profiles "NETWORK-SSID" key=clear

Third-party software

If you don’t mind downloading third party software I’d recommend NirSoft’s WirelessKeyView.
It can be downloaded from the NirSoft website.
wirelesskeyview