Has it ever happened to you that you have not been able to recall the password that you had earlier used to connect to a particular Wi-Fi network? If it has, you are not alone. We connect to a host of Wi-Fi networks in the course of day from our homes, to our workplaces, to the home of a friend we visit often. And it’s not always possible to remember Wi-Fi passwords of all these places.
Good news is that you don’t have to. Here are ways you can find your Wi-Fi password on your Windows or Mac laptops:
Windows
If you are connected to a Wi-Fi network from a Windows laptop or desktop PC, Windows will automatically remember that Wi-Fi network’s password.
Users can look up the Wi-Fi password on any Windows computer that is currently connected to a particular Wi-Fi network, or was previously connected to it.
To do that you need to head to the Network and Sharing Center in the Control Panel and then right-click on the Wireless Network icon in the taskbar. Then click on the “Open Network and Sharing Center” option., Now click the name of the current Wi-Fi connection and then click on the “Wireless Properties” button in the Wi-Fi Status window that appears. Next, select the ‘Security’ tab and activate the ‘Show characters’ checkbox to view the hidden password.
Mac
If you are using a Mac laptop that is currently connected to a Wi-Fi network or was previously connected to it, you can press Command+Space buttons to open the Spotlight search dialogue box and type “terminal” to open the Terminal window. At the command line, enter this command: security find-generic-password -wa Wi-Fi name. Replace Wi-Fi name with the name of the Wi-Fi that you find the password for. Now enter your Mac’s username and password to access the OS X keychain and the Wi-FI network password, which would be displayed on your PC’s screen in plain text.
