Recover forgotten passwords

Your computer is set up to save many different passwords, from your email address password in Outlook, through to your Wi-Fi network password in Windows. At some point someone may ask for your Wi-Fi password or you need your email password. If you don’t have it, here are some tips for you.

It’s needless to say these tools need to be used responsibly without infringing on other peoples privacy. None of these tools actually hack or guess passwords, all they do is display passwords that are stored on the computer the tool is being run on, that otherwise may be hidden from view.
Zipped Folders: Some of these password tools are distributed in ZIP file. ZIP files are an easy way to distribute a folder or several files and once they are extracted, the contents of the ZIP file are converted to a regular folder on your computer with the files inside. To access the contents, once downloaded, right click the ZIP folder file and select “Extract All”. You will be prompted to select a location where the contents of the file will be saved to. Once complete, you will be able to access the files and folders in the location you extracted them to.




Your Wi-Fi password is needed to connect a new computer to your wireless internet connection. If your computer is already connected to the wireless network, click here http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/wireless_key.html#DownloadLinks and click the “Download WirelessKeyView 32-bit” link. This will download a ZIP folder which needs extracting. Next, open the folder and double click the WirelessKeyView file with the key icon and a list of Wi-Fi connections and their passwords will be displayed.





Another password you may need to recover is your email address password. As long as the email address is set up in Outlook with the correct password, you can use this tool to get a list of your email addresses and their passwords. Go to http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/mailpv.html and scroll down the page to find the download link. Once the file is downloaded and unzipped, double click the mailpv file with the yellow envelope icon and a list of your Outlook email accounts and their passwords will be displayed.





Many programs that save your password may hide it from view by displaying it using dots or asterisks, in this case open the program and make sure the password field is showing with the dots before you go to http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/bullets_password_view.html and download the Zip file. Once extracted, run the BulletsPassView file with the icon showing two dots and the hidden passwords will be displayed.





Passwords for websites can be stored in your browser and although you can usually access them through the settings menus in the browser, here are some programs you can use to easily see and save these passwords. For Internet Explorer, use the tool provided on this page: http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/internet_explorer_password.html. For Chrome passwords use: http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/chromepass.html For Firefox passwords use: http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/passwordfox.html