How to Find Saved Wi-Fi Passwords in Windows Using CMD

You've connected to a Wi-Fi network before, but you can't remember the password and need to share it or connect a new device. Windows stores credentials for every network you've previously connected to, and you can pull them back out in plain text using a single netsh command. No third-party tools required.

When Would You Use This?

Method 1, Single Network Lookup

This is the quickest way to retrieve the password for one specific network you already know the name of.

• 1
  Open Command Prompt as Administrator

  Press Win + S, type cmd, then right-click Command Prompt and select Run as administrator. Click Yes on the UAC prompt.
• 2
  Open the netsh shell

  Type netsh and press Enter. Your prompt will change to netsh>.

  CMD Copy

  netsh

  
• 3
  List all saved Wi-Fi profiles

  Run the command below to see every network your device has connected to and saved credentials for.

  netsh Copy

  wlan show profile
  
  # Example output:
  # Profiles on interface Wi-Fi:
  #
  # Group policy profiles (read only)
  # ---------------------------------
  #     <None>
  #
  # User profiles
  # -------------
  #     All User Profile : HomeNetwork
  #     All User Profile : OfficeWifi
  #     All User Profile : JackPhone

  
• 4
  Retrieve the password for a specific network

  Replace Example with the exact SSID name from the list above. The key=clear flag tells netsh to show the password in plain text.

  netsh Copy

  wlan show profile "Example" key=clear
  
  # Look for this section in the output:
  #
  # Security settings
  # -----------------
  #     Authentication         : WPA2-Personal
  #     Cipher                 : CCMP
  #     Security Key           : Present
  #     Key Content            : YourPasswordHere

  

The password appears next to Key Content under the Security settings section. That's it.

Method 2, Dump All Passwords at Once

If you need to retrieve passwords for every saved network in one go, useful for device audits or before a rebuild, this one-liner loops through all profiles automatically.

Run this directly in an elevated Command Prompt (not inside the netsh shell):

# Paste this entire line into an elevated Command Prompt and press Enter
@for /f tokens^=2delims^=^: %i in ('netsh wlan show profiles') do @set "_ssid=%~i" && @for /f tokens^=2delims^=: %I in ('cmd/v/c netsh wlan show profiles "!_ssid:~1!" key^=clear^|findstr /vi "absent"^|findstr "Key"') do @echo/%i: %I

The output will be a list of every saved network and its stored password, formatted as NetworkName: Password.

PowerShell Alternative

If you prefer PowerShell, you can do the same thing with cleaner output. Run this in an elevated PowerShell window:

# Get password for a single network
(netsh wlan show profile name="YourNetworkName" key=clear) |
  Select-String "Key Content"

# Output:
#     Key Content            : YourPasswordHere

# Loop through all profiles and output SSID + password
(netsh wlan show profiles) |
  Select-String "\:(.+)$" |
  ForEach-Object {
    $ssid = $_.Matches.Groups[1].Value.Trim()
    $pass = (netsh wlan show profile name="$ssid" key=clear) |
             Select-String "Key Content" |
             ForEach-Object { ($_ -split ":")[1].Trim() }
    [PSCustomObject]@{ SSID = $ssid; Password = $pass }
  } | Format-Table -AutoSize

# Output:
# SSID          Password
# ----          --------
# HomeNetwork   hunter2
# OfficeWifi    C0rpP@ssw0rd!

Where Windows Stores Wi-Fi Passwords

Windows stores every Wi-Fi profile as an XML file on disk. You can find them at:

Each file is named after the network's profile GUID and contains the full configuration including the encrypted key material. The password is encrypted using Windows DPAPI (Data Protection API) tied to the local machine account, which is why you need to be running as Administrator (or SYSTEM) to decrypt and display it in plain text via netsh.