Our systems remember every Wi-Fi password we’ve ever connected to. That’s how it re-establishes connections with those networks without entering the password again. Here’s a tutorial on how you can explore the saved password of any network you’ve ever connected to on your Windows, Linux, and macOS. Let’s get started.
Windows
In Windows, you can easily find the Wi-Fi passwords by using the command prompt. For opening the command prompt, you can go to the search bar and then search for CMD. Don’t forget to run it as an administrator. Once the command prompt is open, Just run the following command. This command will display all the Wi-Fi network interfaces you’ve ever connected to previously. For example, you can see below these are the Wi-Fi networks I’ve ever connected to. And next step is to explore the password of a particular interface. Just use the below command. Here you should provide the interface name for the password to be revealed. sample output: In the security settings details, you can see the password (Key Content) for the interface I provided. This is how you can easily find a Wi-Fi password for any interface using the command prompt in windows.
Linux
In all Linux distributions, information of all wireless networks is being stored in the Network manager directory. To find the saved Wi-Fi passwords using a command line, enter these commands. After that, use the list command to show the files in the folder. Network config files will be displayed on the screen after using the command. These config files contain information about each network, including the Wi-Fi SSID, UUID, and Wi-Fi password. Use Cat command or some text editor to open the file and see the password for a specific interface. This command will show all the information about the Wi-Fi network you have chosen. Sample Output: In the above output, the PSK (pre-shared key) value is the password for the given Wi-Fi network.
macOS
In the macOS also, you can easily find the password for any Wi-Fi interface using the command line. You can launch the terminal by navigating to Applications > Utilities > Terminal. Here, you need to replace the interface name with the Wi-Fi network name you choose. This command reveals the password for the Wi-Fi network you provide.
Conclusion 👩💻
If you’ve ever joined a Wi-Fi network, you have that network’s password saved on your system. It doesn’t matter whichever operating system it is. You can use the terminal to access all your saved Wi-Fi passwords. I hope you found this article very useful in finding the Wi-Fi passwords in different operating systems. You may also be interested in knowing about the various best Wi-Fi routers for personal and office use.
