Use SniffPass (free) to get back your passwords

[KenR]

What a great idea. I can think of many times I wish I'd had this utility.

SniffPass is small freeware utility that listens to your network, capture the passwords that pass through your network adapter, and display them on the screen instantly. SniffPass can capture the passwords of the following Protocols: POP3, IMAP4, SMTP, FTP, and HTTP (basic authentication passwords).
You can use this utility to recover lost Web/FTP/Email passwords.

http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/password_sniffer.html

from http://www.all4you.dk/FreewareWorld

[Nighted]

Me too...then I started backing up all my passwords religiously. :p

[longrun]

I'm confused: if you don't know your password, why would it pass through?

[mouser]

I'm confused: if you don't know your password, why would it pass through?

I think the idea is that many of us have our passwords stored in programs like the email program, etc., and they are not shown to us so we can't see what they were or remember them, but they are still actually stored in the program and used.  Which is fine until you want to install software on a new pc or something, and have to recall what the password actually is.

[longrun]

Opera users might be interested in the Retrieve Wand Password power button (bookmarklet), http://operawiki.info/PowerButtons#retrievewand.