# How to turn off WiFi in Windows 10?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-turn-off-wifi-in-windows-10/733165
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [October 1, 2015, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-turn-off-wifi-in-windows-10/733165 "2015-10-01T18:18:15Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Dingbang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dingbang)
#### Post date: [October 1, 2015, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-turn-off-wifi-in-windows-10/733165/1 "2015-10-01T18:18:15Z")
I need to turn off the WiFi connection on my computer. I don’t mean WiFi Sense, which is about sharing your connection and a lot of people are turning off for security reasons. This is for a desktop PC that is hard wired via Ethernet, which is super fast. But since upgrading to Windows 10 the PC insists on connecting via WiFi, which is much slower. I’ve tried everything I can figure out to turn off all WiFi connections, prevent them from connecting automatically, forget the WiFi in question, etc.
An hour of Googling didn’t turn up an answer but it seems a lot of people are having a similar problem. Many of them want to prioritize the Ethernet over WiFi, which could work for me. But I also can forgo the WiFi connection entirely since I’ll never use it on this PC.
Any ideas?
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### Author:  [@gazpacho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gazpacho)
#### Post date: [October 1, 2015, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-turn-off-wifi-in-windows-10/733165/2 "2015-10-01T18:31:34Z")
From the start menu choose settings. In settings choose Network and internet. in Network and internet choose wi-fi. From there you have a on / off switch.
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### Author:  [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)
#### Post date: [October 1, 2015, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-turn-off-wifi-in-windows-10/733165/3 "2015-10-01T18:32:15Z")
This is a desktop with built-in wifi, but you want to use the hardwired ethernet port exclusively?
1. Disable the wifi adapter in Device Manager until such time as you want wifi again. On laptop, this might be inconvenient, but for fixed-site wired use, it should be fine.
2. In Win 7, wifi was listed under network adapters and you could go in and disable that adapter (and/or any others, such as secondary wired ones). I’ll have to take a quick look here, but is that menu not around in Win 10?
ETA, after **gazpacho** ’s update: Go to Start | Settings | Network | Ethernet | Change adapter options, and you should be able to disable the wifi adapter there. (Right-click, Disable.) That might be a better solution than turning it off at the OS level, since so many Helpful Features might turn it back on for you.
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### Author:  [@Dingbang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dingbang)
#### Post date: [October 1, 2015, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-turn-off-wifi-in-windows-10/733165/4 "2015-10-01T18:47:25Z")
> [@gazpacho](#):
>
> From the start menu choose settings. In settings choose Network and internet. in Network and internet choose wi-fi. From there you have a on / off switch.
There is no on/off switch there.
[/QUOTE]
ETA, after gazpacho’s update: Go to Start | Settings | Network | Ethernet | Change adapter options, and you should be able to disable the wifi adapter there. (Right-click, Disable.) That might be a better solution than turning it off at the OS level, since so many Helpful Features might turn it back on for you.
[/QUOTE]
I did that and successfully disabled the wifi adapter. Yet, I’m still connected to WiFi. After disabling the adapter, when I go back one page to the Ethernet page it still says connected to the same WiFi. Clicking on the little symbol at the bottom right of the screen also says I’m still connected to it.
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### Author:  [@Dr.TimBeck5436](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.TimBeck5436)
#### Post date: [October 1, 2015, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-turn-off-wifi-in-windows-10/733165/5 "2015-10-01T18:50:24Z")
First you need to start off by going to your wi-fi settings. This can be accoplished by going to the control panel. You can go there and look in internet connection or in wi-fi and look to prioritize it there. You can also look for where you could link wi-fi up and disable it from there.
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### Author:  [@Dingbang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dingbang)
#### Post date: [October 1, 2015, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-turn-off-wifi-in-windows-10/733165/6 "2015-10-01T19:00:34Z")
> [@Dr.TimBeck5436](#):
>
> First you need to start off by going to your wi-fi settings. This can be accoplished by going to the control panel. You can go there and look in internet connection or in wi-fi and look to prioritize it there. You can also look for where you could link wi-fi up and disable it from there.
Thanks, but that doesn’t work in Windows 10. When you go to Internet Connection there’s no option to prioritize. Windows 10 changed how all this worked previously.
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### Author:  [@arseNal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/arseNal)
#### Post date: [October 1, 2015, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-turn-off-wifi-in-windows-10/733165/7 "2015-10-01T19:03:44Z")
> [@Dingbang](#):
>
> I did that and successfully disabled the wifi adapter. Yet, I’m still connected to WiFi. After disabling the adapter, when I go back one page to the Ethernet page it still says connected to the same WiFi. Clicking on the little symbol at the bottom right of the screen also says I’m still connected to it.
That sounds pretty crazy. How are you confirming you are still connected to wifi? Did you try, for example, pulling out the ethernet cable and then seeing that you are still connected to the network?
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### Author:  [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)
#### Post date: [October 1, 2015, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-turn-off-wifi-in-windows-10/733165/8 "2015-10-01T19:09:00Z")
Perhaps that symbol usually on the same key as F2?
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### Author:  [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)
#### Post date: [October 1, 2015, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-turn-off-wifi-in-windows-10/733165/9 "2015-10-01T19:09:56Z")
On some systems, you can disable the wireless adapter in the BIOS.
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### Author:  [@Dingbang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dingbang)
#### Post date: [October 1, 2015, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-turn-off-wifi-in-windows-10/733165/10 "2015-10-01T19:18:33Z")
Unplugging the Ethernet cable and plugging it back in seemed to do the trick. Now I’m on Ethernet and everything seems right. Don’t understand what was wrong, but I guess it doesn’t matter now.
Thanks for all the advice.
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### Author:  [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)
#### Post date: [October 1, 2015, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-turn-off-wifi-in-windows-10/733165/11 "2015-10-01T19:36:35Z")
> [@kanicbird](#):
>
> Perhaps that symbol usually on the same key as F2?
Not on a desktop.
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### Author:  [@Doughbag](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doughbag)
#### Post date: [October 1, 2015, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-turn-off-wifi-in-windows-10/733165/12 "2015-10-01T19:39:11Z")
2 ways
Airplane mode:
Click onto the Wifi symbol and click there onto “Airplane Mode” - this disables the wifi
[Link](http://windows.microsoft.com/en-ie/windows-10/turn-on-airplane-mode)
Turn off Wifi:
The 37 seconds youtube guide is [here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-c9zA3SBpB4) (your experience may vary due to computer speed)
It’s both basically the same 🙂
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### Author:  [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)
#### Post date: [October 1, 2015, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-turn-off-wifi-in-windows-10/733165/13 "2015-10-01T19:46:37Z")
Just a dumb, late question, but did you reboot after disabling the wifi adapter?
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### Author:  [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)
#### Post date: [October 1, 2015, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-turn-off-wifi-in-windows-10/733165/14 "2015-10-01T19:53:13Z")
Missed edit: AND was the ethernet adapter enabled, and configured correctly? Network connections are based on the adapter - that is, there is no general IP address setting or config; it’s all per-adapter (and you can have multiple active adapters, if you want).
So disable wifi, check the settings on the wired adapter, and rebootsky.
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### Author:  [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)
#### Post date: [October 1, 2015, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-turn-off-wifi-in-windows-10/733165/15 "2015-10-01T20:05:52Z")
It sounds like you’ve solved the problem, but if you hadn’t been able to, couldn’t you have just changed the WiFi password, or would that entail reentering the password in numerous devices?
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### Author:  [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)
#### Post date: [October 1, 2015, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-turn-off-wifi-in-windows-10/733165/16 "2015-10-01T20:09:45Z")
Wifi has turned into a real PITA in most implementations, IMHO. It persists in trying to connect and reconnect and find a better connection and then turn itself back on to connect… because what idiot wouldn’t want a continuous, best-power connection? Trying to trick it with bad passwords etc. just makes it all the more frantic.
Turning it “off” at the user level is one thing, and subject to all of the above. The OP wants it dead and buried - at least for the duration. Kill the adapter.
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### Author:  [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)
#### Post date: [October 1, 2015, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-turn-off-wifi-in-windows-10/733165/17 "2015-10-01T20:57:49Z")
Obviously disabling it is the best answer but the OP at least at first seemed unable to do that.
Would it keep trying to connect with a bad password? Is it constantly scanning all available WiFi signals and trying to connect to the strongest?
I’m not saying it’s not doing that, just asking if that is in fact what it does.
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### Author:  [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)
#### Post date: [October 1, 2015, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-turn-off-wifi-in-windows-10/733165/18 "2015-10-01T21:08:28Z")
I think the wifi subsystem would keep trying to connect and handle data, and might cause weird behavior - slowdowns in net speed, if nothing else - if left live and active. Adjudication between net ports doesn’t seem to be very good in Windows, or in most other end-user OSes.
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### Author:  [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)
#### Post date: [October 1, 2015, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-turn-off-wifi-in-windows-10/733165/19 "2015-10-01T21:19:19Z")
When I plug ethernet in, my OS uses ethernet preferentially over WiFi although both are available. And although I’m not a Windows person I bet this is how Windows works, too. You said unplugging and replugging the ethernet cable “did the trick”. I bet it wasn’t making good contact originally.
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### Author:  [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)
#### Post date: [October 1, 2015, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-turn-off-wifi-in-windows-10/733165/20 "2015-10-01T21:23:06Z")
I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised to find that Windows 10 is doing something as stupidly as possible.