Managing Wireless Networks in Windows 8

Many of us take our laptops all over the place, and it is not uncommon for us to connect to several wireless networks on an ongoing basis.  In Windows 7 there was a simple way to manage the wireless networks that you connect to, but it seems to be missing from Windows 8.  This doesn’t mean that you can’t manage your networks, but it has to be done in different ways.

There is a third-party tool that seems to makes this task easy.  The WiFi Profile Manager 8 (developed by Lee Whittington for The Windows Club) lets you view preferred networks, change the order, export and import the list to XML, and remove wireless profiles.  If you are familiar with the old tool from Windows 7 then you will not have any trouble using this tool.  It can be downloaded from TWC by clicking here.

If you are wary of third-party tools and are pretty handy with the command line, then you can manage your wireless networks from the command line.

(To open a Command Prompt either type cmd from the Start Menu, or from the desktop press Win-R and then type cmd)

List all stored wireless profiles: netsh wlan show profiles |more

Show the profile information (profile, connectivity, security, and cost settings): netsh wlan show profiles name=<profile name> key=clear

Delete a profile: netsh wlan delete profile name=<profile name>

The netsh command is not new, and any IT Pro with some command line experience will recognize it.  Of course the GUI has made us lazy… you probably already knew about this, and just needed to be reminded of it.  As for me… let’s just say that Bing is my friend too Smile

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2 responses to “Managing Wireless Networks in Windows 8”

  1. Hey guys I read about how to delete saved wifi profiles in Windows 8 in a much easier and clear way right here http://goo.gl/5MHyaz

  2. 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.

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