When talking about security Windows is most susceptible and prone to malware and viruses as compared to Linux and Mac. Now and then we find the news hitting the headlines that a Windows uses is targeted by the attackers. Although now Windows has made its operating system stronger by making Windows Defender more powerful but still attackers or other snoopers feel it more comfortable to break into the Windows system.
Today in our article we will be going to discuss one such aspect of Windows using which one can find hidden and saved passwords in Windows. We all use a browser to surf over the internet, logging in to various online shopping sites, email clients but how many of us know that the passwords that we use to sign in to our accounts are saved in Windows itself. These passwords are saved at various locations of Windows like Windows registry, credential file etc. Although all your credentials are initially saved in encrypted form, however, to decrypt them all one need is a Windows password.
So, guys without further ado lets discuss various ways to get hidden and saved the password in Windows.
Find Hidden Password Using Windows Credential Manager:
As its name suggests Credential Manager is used to manage your credentials. Using Credential Manager, one can get access to the login credentials for websites that your surf, network and other connected applications.
To access Credential Manager all you need to type in Credential Manager in Windows search and click on the search result that displays.
You can also access Credential Manager from Control Panel. Open control panel and click on Credential Manager.
Once Credential Manager is opened you will find two categories, one is of Web Credentials and other is of Windows Credentials.
Now talking about web credential, all the passwords that you have saved while logging on to various websites are stored in it. In the screenshot attached above you can find that in Web Passwords it has saved the password for the Yahoo account along with its username. If you wish to see the password, all you need to do is click on Show that is next to password.
Now in order to make that password visible, all you need to do is type in your Windows password. And what was more shocking that although we are using a password manager and have disabled its setting to save the password in browser, then also the password gets stored. When I further explore this Web Passwords file it contains many other login details of websites that are signed in this computer.
After Web Credential when we move to Windows Credentials we find that as compared to later it contains fewer details.
As it only contains the login details when you connect to various network shared drives, or different systems that are on the same network or network attached storage devices. In the above screenshot you can see that it is showing the User name and password for the device that we accessed on the home network.
So, guys in this way using Windows Credential manager you can get the credentials for the web as well as the Windows, irrespective of the password manager you are using.
Find Hidden Password with Browser
Now if you are thinking that Windows Credential manager is the only way to find hidden and saved passwords in Windows then you are wrong. The various browsers that you use to browse the world wide web also can be used to find the passwords.
First of all, let’s talk about the most popular browser that is Google Chrome. To find the passwords in Chrome first of all launch the browser and click on the three dots that are located on the top -right corner. Now from the drop-down menu select Settings.
In the new tab that opens click on Advanced button and scroll to Passwords and forms option. Now in the Passwords and forms section click on Manage passwords.
Here you will find the complete list of the username along with their passwords for the various websites that you have logged in the past. You can see in the screenshot attached above that the Chrome has stored several passwords. Now to reveal these passwords all you need to click on view icon and provide your system password. Once provided you can easily get the password.
Similarly, in other browsers also you can easily view the saved passwords. Apart from this, there are many third-party applications that can help you to find all the hidden passwords in Windows.
So, guys, that’s it from our side. Hope you have enjoyed reading this article and learn how to find the saved passwords that are saved in Windows.
