Manage Wireless Networks in Windows 8 & 8.1

My new Thinkpad came with Windows 8 Pre-Installed and I searched for "Manage Wireless Networks" for an hour or so without any luck in locating it. In Windows 7, we have "Manage wireless networks", "Change adapter settings" and "Change advanced sharing settings" under "Network and Sharing Center". The "Manage wireless networks" option doesn't appear in Windows 8 or 8.1.

Finally after an hour of looking around, I understand that we have to travel back in time for around 15 years and work in command prompt. 


From Charms bar, select "Settings", then "Change PC settings", click "Network" and then "Connections" to see the different profiles. But the "Network" under "Change PC settings" doesn't appear on my Thinkpad(It did appear after upgrade to 8.1).

The same page also has the following prompt instructions using which I could resolve my issue. Even if you can access your connection profiles using the method above(from charms bar), you have to follow the below steps for certain tasks.

You can open a command prompt by typing "cmd" in the Run dialog(Windows button + R), or alternatively, type "command prompt" under windows 8 search(from charms bar). When accessing it from the search, it appears under "Apps".

Command for using at the command prompt

Delete a profile
netsh wlan delete profile name="ProfileName"

Show all wireless profiles on the PC
netsh wlan show profiles

Show a security key
netsh wlan show profile name=“ProfileName” key=clear

Stop automatically connecting to a network that's out of range
netsh wlan set profileparameter name=”ProfileName” connectionmode=manual

Use the above commands to find and delete all the unwanted profiles stored on your system. I have used my laptop with different profiles and I wanted to delete all of them because I know I will not use them again. Using the above commands, I realized that there are more network profiles stored in my pc than I expected. Not that these will slow down my system, but I just wanted to get rid of the unnecessary stuff.

Comments

  1. Yann Le HellocoJanuary 31, 2014

    Check out this other tool: it is very good and cover all your needs for profile management, without requiring using command line methods: http://main.kerkia.com/Products/WinFi/description.aspx.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment