I have an old laptop that I always take with me on trips. I finally decided to get a new one – it was just getting too slow.
Last weekend I was going to my brother’s place up north. The problem was, he was out of town and I really wanted to use his wireless when I got there.
So instead of bothering him for the key, I was able to pull the old wireless keys from that clunky old laptop.
I did it using a free tool from http://www.nirsoft.net called WirelessKeyView:
It is a simple tool that will scan the registry for all the wireless networks you have ever joined, and show you a list of passwords.
It can pull WPA, WEP keys, and will even show you both the password and the hex key for the password.
The latest version can be found here:
http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/wireless_key.html
Best of all it is free for commercial and personal use.
One more thing…Subscribe to my newsletter and get 11 free network administrator tools, plus a 30 page user guide so you can get the most out of them. Click Here to get your free tools
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Steve, do you know if third party utilities like the intel wireless tools use windows to store these passwords? That is what our company uses and it worries me that this can be pulled so easily
Even if it does not, there is still probably an easy way to pull this information. For a corporate network you should not be using simple wireless keys, but either some type of web based access system (Where you need to enter credentials to gain access to the network) or use a AP that supports radius – so users can be allowed access based on their AD account information