Many applications, such as CuteFTP and Outlook Express, allows you to enter a password and use it when it is needed. However, if you forget your password, you cannot see it, because it's hidden behind asterisks ('****') characters.
The following code snippet scans all windows on the screen and reveals the passwords behind the asterisks characters.
This code sample works properly only on Windows 95,98,ME and NT. If you want to reveal a password in Windows 2000 or Windows XP, download the AsterWin utility. If you want to reveal a password behind asterisks in Internet Explorer, download the AsterWin IE utility
Also be aware that this utility will not work with applications that don't store the password behind the asterisks, such as User Manager in Windows NT.

'Password Revealer 'Copyright (c) 2002 Nir Sofer 'Web site: http://nirsoft.mirrorz.com ' 'The following code sample scans all opened windows, and reveals the passwords 'behind the password text-boxes (with asterisks '***'). 'This code sample works properly only on Windows 95/98/ME/NT. It doesn't work on Windows 2000/XP. ' Public Declare Function EnumWindows Lib "user32" _ (ByVal lpEnumFunc As Long, ByVal lParam As Long) As Long Public Declare Function EnumChildWindows Lib "user32" _ (ByVal hWndParent As Long, ByVal lpEnumFunc As Long, ByVal lParam As Long) As Long Public Declare Function SendMessage Lib "user32" Alias "SendMessageA" _ (ByVal hwnd As Long, ByVal wMsg As Long, ByVal wParam As Long, lParam As Any) As Long Public Type POINTAPI x As Long y As Long End Type Public Type MSG hwnd As Long message As Long wParam As Long lParam As Long time As Long pt As POINTAPI End Type Public Declare Function GetWindowLong Lib "user32" Alias "GetWindowLongA" _ (ByVal hwnd As Long, ByVal nIndex As Long) As Long Public Const GWL_STYLE = (-16) Public Const ES_PASSWORD = &H20& Public Const EM_SETPASSWORDCHAR = &HCC Public Declare Function InvalidateRect Lib "user32" _ (ByVal hwnd As Long, lpRect As Any, ByVal bErase As Long) As Long Public Declare Function UpdateWindow Lib "user32" _ (ByVal hwnd As Long) As Long Public Function EnumChildWindowsProc(ByVal hwnd As Long, ByVal lParam As Long) As Long If (GetWindowLong(hwnd, GWL_STYLE) And ES_PASSWORD) <> 0 Then 'Clear the password character SendMessage hwnd, EM_SETPASSWORDCHAR, 0, 0 'Repaint the window InvalidateRect hwnd, ByVal 0, 0 UpdateWindow hwnd End If EnumChildWindowsProc = 1 End Function Public Function EnumWindowsProc(ByVal hwnd As Long, ByVal lParam As Long) As Long 'Enumerating all child windows. EnumChildWindows hwnd, AddressOf EnumChildWindowsProc, 0 EnumWindowsProc = 1 End Function Public Sub EnumPasswords() 'Enumerating all top-level windows. EnumWindows AddressOf EnumWindowsProc, 0 End Sub

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