How to recover SA account password without restoring it? I forgot my SA password and resetting the password is out of the question because internal applications are using it and will will affect them. I also don't have an option to change the SA credentials for those applications.

This is why I must know what the password is WITHOUT restoring it.

Is there any method for that?
There is no way you can retrieve the lost sa password without resetting it. Relevant SO thread here