# Password recovery for Outlook Express

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/password-recovery-for-outlook-express/199939>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [September 6, 2003, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/password-recovery-for-outlook-express/199939 "2003-09-06T16:16:17Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Electronic\_Chaos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Electronic\_Chaos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Electronic_Chaos)\
**Post date:** [September 6, 2003, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/password-recovery-for-outlook-express/199939/1 "2003-09-06T16:16:17Z")

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My mom has her email password saved on her hard drive, but has no clue what it is. She wants to be able to check her email from work, but obviously can’t without the password. I found some tools that would do it for $30, but I don’t think she feels like shelling out that much for a program she’s only going to use once. Are there any free programs that do it, or is there any how-to’s showing how to do it?

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**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\
**Post date:** [September 6, 2003, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/password-recovery-for-outlook-express/199939/2 "2003-09-06T16:18:46Z")

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If it’s for an ISP-provided account, she can just call her ISP and ask them. Once they verify her ID, the ought to be able to help. If it’s for a web-based account, she can go to their website and they ought to have a password-recovery option on the login screen.

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**Author:** ![Electronic\_Chaos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Electronic\_Chaos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Electronic_Chaos)\
**Post date:** [September 6, 2003, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/password-recovery-for-outlook-express/199939/3 "2003-09-06T16:33:38Z")

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Yeah yeah, but I don’t want to have to fool with dialing tech support. I like doing things the hard way – calling tech support’s usually a last ditch effort for me.

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**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\
**Post date:** [September 6, 2003, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/password-recovery-for-outlook-express/199939/4 "2003-09-06T16:35:43Z")

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If you have a password-entry screen where the password is replaced with asterisks, try the freeware program [Snadboy’s Revelation.](http://www.snadboy.com/) It will show what is under those asterisks.

It has always worked for me, but I haven’t tried it with XP, and some friends have reported it didn’t always work for them. Still, the price is right.

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**Author:** ![Electronic\_Chaos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Electronic\_Chaos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Electronic_Chaos)\
**Post date:** [September 6, 2003, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/password-recovery-for-outlook-express/199939/5 "2003-09-06T16:46:24Z")

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That got it, Musiccat. Many thanks.