How to See Saved Wi-Fi Passwords in Windows 11

Where Windows stores your Wi-Fi passwords

Every time you connect to a new network and type its password, the WLAN AutoConfig service saves a WLAN profile: a small XML file recording the network name, the security type and the key itself, kept under the system's ProgramData folder. Windows uses these profiles to reconnect automatically, which is why you almost never retype a Wi-Fi password after the first time. The files are guarded by access permissions, but any administrator can read the same information back through built-in tools — the storage is hidden from passers-by, not encrypted against the machine's own admins.

That design is convenient, but it has consequences. Hand someone your laptop unlocked for even a few minutes and they can walk away with every Wi-Fi password you have saved. On a shared PC, separate standard accounts per person keep the profiles from mixing, and on a borrowed machine it is only fair to ask the owner to click Forget on their networks once you are done.

• Each network you connect to becomes a WLAN profile, kept until you click Forget in Settings
• A profile holds the network name, security settings and the password itself, in XML form
• netsh wlan export profile key=clear folder=C:\WiFi dumps every profile to an XML file with passwords in plain text
• Forgetting a network in Settings deletes its profile — and the stored password with it
• Windows Backup can save known Wi-Fi networks to your Microsoft account and restore them on a new PC

Revealing the current network's password in Settings

For the network you are using right now, Windows 11 keeps it simple. Press Win+I to open Settings, go to Network & internet, then Wi-Fi, and click the name of the connected network. On the page that opens there is a Password row with a View button — one click and the key is shown in plain text, ready to read aloud to a guest or copy to a sticker. This works from a standard account, no administrator rights required.

The classic dialog still works too and is the way to go on Windows 10. Press Win+R, type ncpa.cpl, press Enter, double-click your Wi-Fi adapter, click Wireless Properties, open the Security tab and tick Show characters. The dots in the Network security key field turn into the actual password. Note the limit of this route: it shows the key of the network the adapter is currently connected to, not the whole list of saved profiles.

Any saved network: netsh in an administrator Command Prompt

For networks you joined weeks or months ago, the built-in netsh tool is the answer. Right-click Start, choose Terminal (Admin) or Command Prompt (Admin), then run netsh wlan show profiles — Windows lists every profile on the machine. Then run netsh wlan show profile name=Home5G key=clear, replacing Home5G with the exact profile name from that list, and look for the Key Content line under Security settings: that is the password. Without administrator rights the key line is silently omitted, so an elevated prompt is a must.

Two practical notes. If a profile name contains spaces, it has to be wrapped in quotes after name= — the example above deliberately uses a name without spaces so the command can be copied as is. And if you are migrating to a new PC, netsh wlan export profile key=clear folder=C:\WiFi writes every profile into a separate XML file with passwords in plain text — convenient, but treat that folder like a password list and delete it once the move is done.

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