Recover Your Wi-Fi Password from Windows CLI
In case you misplaced your wi-fi password you can recover it very easily using 2 commands on Windoze:
Open the Terminal or PowerShell
PS C:\Users\user> netsh wlan show profile
The output will be similar to this. You need to obtain the User Profile of the connection that you’re interested in:
Profiles on interface Wi-Fi:
Group policy profiles (read only)
---------------------------------
<None>
User profiles
-------------
All User Profile : ROUTER21
All User Profile : 4YWD8-5G
All User Profile : 4YWD8
OK, so we know we have 3 profiles. Run the next command with the profile you’re interested in:
PS C:\Users\user> netsh wlan show profile name="ROUTER21" key=clear
You’ll get a bunch of output, but what you’re interested in is the field named Key Content in the Security settings section which holds the wi-fi password in cleartext:
Profile ROUTER21 on interface Wi-Fi:
:
blah blah blah
:
Connectivity settings
---------------------
Number of SSIDs : 1
SSID name : "ROUTER21"
Network type : Infrastructure
Radio type : [ Any Radio Type ]
Vendor extension : Not present
Security settings
-----------------
Authentication : WPA2-Personal
Cipher : CCMP
Authentication : WPA2-Personal
Cipher : GCMP
Security key : Present
Key Content : mywifitpassword
:
blah blah blah
:
:
Tags: cli, wi-fi, networking, motd