How to quickly find Wi-Fi password on Windows 10

Can't remember your WiFi password? Here are two easy ways to find it on Windows 10.

Find Wi-Fi password on Windows 10
Find Wi-Fi password on Windows 10
  • To find the Wi-Fi password on Windows 10, from the “Network connections” page in Control Panel, open the “Wireless Properties” page for the active connection and check the “Show characters” option to view the Wi-Fi password.
  • If you want to view the password for saved wireless networks, you will have to run the “netsh wlan show profile name=”Wi-Fi-Profile” key=clear” command in Command Prompt.

On Windows 10, you can find the Wi-Fi password of the current connection or saved networks. The ability to determine this information can come in handy, for instance, if you are trying to help someone with a laptop join the same wireless network or remember it for future reference.

While the Settings app does not offer a way to view this information, you can use Control Panel to find the Wi-Fi password of the current connection and Command Prompt (or PowerShell) to view the current and saved network passwords you connected in the past.

In this guide, you will learn the steps to quickly find a Wi-Fi password on Windows 10 using Control Panel and Command Prompt.

Find Wi-Fi password on Windows 10 from Control Panel

To find the Wi-Fi password on Windows 10, use these steps:

  1. Open Control Panel on Windows 10.

  2. Click on Network and Internet.

  3. Click on Network and Sharing Center.

  4. Click the “Change adapter settings” option from the left pane.

    Change adapter settings

  5. Double-click the wireless adapter.

    Control Panel wireless adapter selected

  6. Click the Wireless Properties button.

    Windows properties button

  7. Click the “Security” tab.

  8. Check the Show characters option to find the Wi-Fi password on Windows 10 in the “Network security key” field.

    Control Panel Wi-Fi password revealed

Once you complete the steps, the wireless password will be revealed on Windows 10.

Find Wi-Fi password on Windows 10 from Command Prompt

Using Control Panel, you can only view the Wi-Fi password for the network you’re currently connected to. If you want to see your current password or saved Wi-Fi networks stored on Windows 10, you’ll need to use Command Prompt. These steps will also work on PowerShell.

To see the Wi-Fi passwords from saved networks on Windows 10, use these steps:

  1. Open Start.

  2. Search for Command Prompt, right-click the result, and select the Run as an Administrator option.

  3. Type the following command to view a list of the Wi-Fi networks your computer connected to at one point in time and press Enter:

    netsh wlan show profiles
  4. Type the following command to determine the Wi-Fi password for a particular network and press Enter:

    netsh wlan show profile name="Wi-Fi-Profile" key=clear

    netsh show wireless password command

After completing the steps, the password will be displayed in the Key Content field under “Security settings.” Remember to change Wi-Fi-Profile for the name of your current or saved network you want to see the password in the command.

The steps to find the Wi-Fi password can always come in handy to help others connect to the same network and when you need to reconnect after resetting your network connections.

About the author

Mauro Huculak is a Windows How-To Expert who started Pureinfotech in 2010 as an independent online publication. He has also been a Windows Central contributor for nearly a decade. Mauro has over 15 years of experience writing comprehensive guides and creating professional videos about Windows and software, including Android and Linux. Before becoming a technology writer, he was an IT administrator for seven years. In total, Mauro has over 21 years of combined experience in technology. Throughout his career, he achieved different professional certifications from Microsoft (MSCA), Cisco (CCNP), VMware (VCP), and CompTIA (A+ and Network+), and he has been recognized as a Microsoft MVP for many years. You can follow him on X (Twitter), YouTube, LinkedIn and About.me. Email him at [email protected].