How to Set Priority for WiFi Networks on Windows 10 using Commands

2 years ago

How to Set Priority for WiFi Networks on Windows 10 using Commands

If you are looking for the easiest way to set priority for WiFi Networks on Windows 10, you have landed in the right spot.

Most of the computer systems we use come with multiple network connections. Primary among them would be an Ethernet Connection and a WiFi connection. However, when connecting to the internet, it does use its own priority to arrive at the right option and use the correct link. How would you prioritize your networks so that you can use the right network when it is at its best? Let us check out how this can be achieved.

Why configure or prioritize Networks on Windows 10?

If your computer has both WiFi and Ethernet connection on your device, you will notice that your computer switches to the Ethernet connection. That is how the network prioritization works on Windows 10. In fact, you will find the same features on any other Windows version before Windows 10 as well.

Windows 10 assigns a network priority to all its network adapters. Somewhat akin to the boot priority that your computer BIOS resorts to while booting it up, this can be an excellent option to achieve instantaneous connectivity. However, there are times where you want to force one of the connections over the other. This is precisely what we term as prioritizing the networks on Windows. Windows 10 does provide you access to an excellent option for taking care of prioritizing the interfaces or network adapters.

A classic example would be the case where you have any issue with your broadband connection. In such scenarios, you would indeed look ahead to use your Mobile internet through the USB tethering. However, the USB tethering is ranked low in-network priority. This would mean your Windows 10 would refuse to use the USB connectivity or the USB tethering. This is just one of the cases that would explain the need for network prioritization. There may be several use-cases of a similar nature.

The standard option to achieve it is to provide a positive number for the network priority. The higher number will indicate a lower preference. In essence, a network with the priority value of Zero would take precedence over the other available networks.

How to Prioritise Networks on Windows 10?

Well, there are several ways you can help achieve the task. Let us check out the networks one by one.

Method 1 – Prioritise the Networks using Adapter Settings

This can be the most straightforward option you can opt for if you are looking to prioritize the networks on your Windows 10 device.

Here are the steps you would need to follow –

Launch the Windows 10 settings using the search menu or any other options.
Click on the Network and Internet
On the Network and Internet settings page, click on the Status option on the left-hand pane. It should open this section by default.
Locate the section for Change Your Network Settings
Under this section, locate and click on Change Adapter Settings.

This should launch the Network Adapter settings page. Locate your adapter that you would want to change the settings for.

Right-click on this adapter
Choose the option Properties from the context menu.
This will launch the properties for the adapter that you have chosen.
Choose the option for Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4) and then click on
Next, choose the opt for the choice to change the network priority is available under the Advanced settings.

Locate the option the says Automatic Metric option and uncheck it. Change the option for Interface Metric to any number below 10. The lower the number, the higher would be the priority. Once you have set it up, close all the windows that are open and restart your computer. This should help you ensure that the changes you have made have taken effect.

Method 2 – Use PowerShell Command to change Network Priority

If the above process does not work or you want to check further options, the PowerShell option can be an excellent option. Do note that you need to be careful enough while handling the PowerShell commands. A wrong step can make your system go haywire.

Here are the steps you can follow to address the network priority –

Please note that the PowerShell would need you to have administrative privileges to perform the tasks we would be handling here.
Choose PowerShell and right-click on it to choose Run As An Administrator.
You will need access to the interface index of your network adapter. Type in the following command and enter

Get-NetIPInterface

This will list out all your network adapters along with their interface index and other details.
Note down the interface index for the network adapter of which priority you would want to change.

Now, type in the following command and press ENTER. Change the INTERFACE_INDEX with the actual interface index. The entry PRIORITY should be the priority you want – a number below 10.

Set-NetIPInterface -InterfaceIndex INTERFACE_INDEX -InterfaceMetric PRIORITY

Reboot your computer for the changes to take effect.

How to Set Priority for WiFi Networks on Windows 10?

There are situations where you would have access to several WiFi networks and saved the passwords for all of them. With so many WiFi networks available at your disposal, you would want to connect to the best possible network for getting your work done with ease.

However, you would find that your computer does not connect to the best network, but it attempts to connect to the network that it has prioritized. Even when the said network has no internet connectivity or is working rather slowly, the computer will connect to the network alone.

Windows tends to assign network connections with priority status automatically. In those situations, you would want to change the priority of your WiFi connections. This ensures that the links are working as per your preferences.

Just like for the network adapters we have explained in the above steps, we have a few good options that should help you set the priority for the WiFi networks. We will check out each of these methods one by one.

Here are the steps you can follow to enable the option for a specific priority for your WiFi connections.

Step 1 – Check the Network Default priority

To begin with, you need to check the default priority for each of your WiFi connections. This can be done through the command prompt.

Launch Command Prompt in the administrator mode.
Type in the following command and press ENTER

              netsh wlan show profiles

The command will list out all the available Wireless networks with the priority that they have been set with. The priority will be in the descending order of preference.

Step 2 – Change the Priority

Once you have found out the priority configured for each of the wireless networks, you would now need to change it to your preference.

Here is how you should be able to do it –

Once again, launch the Command Prompt as an administrator if you have closed it after the last step.
Type in the command here below and press ENTER. Make sure you have changed the WiFi Name to the actual network name.

               netsh wlan set profileorder name="[Wi-Fi Name]" interface="Wi-Fi" priority=1

That would do it. You need to change the priority to your preferred number. You can replace the number 1 above for preference into 2, 3 and so on for each of your connections. The changes will take effect instantly in your WiFi settings. If it does not reflect immediately, you can restart your computer for the changes to take effect.

Next time you connect to a WiFi network, you will find your computer connecting to your preferred personal network.

Another more straightforward method would be to use the Network flyer on your device. That would perhaps be the more comfortable option to achieve the best connectivity options. This should be the most straightforward and most convenient option for changing the connectivity priority on your computer.

Here is what you can do to change the priority of your WiFi connection –

Click on the Wireless icon on the taskbar.
Choose the Wireless network you would want to connect as a preferred network
Check the option for Connect Automatically and then click on ‘connect.’

Next time onwards, you will be able to connect to your network automatically.

If there are wireless connections that you do not want to set as a priority, you need to leave the option Connect Automatically empty.

The Concluding Thoughts

Thee connection priority and the option to configure it should be quite simple and easy to use on a Windows 10 device. We assume the steps that we have shared in the above tutorial should have effectively helped you.

Multiple options should be helpful enough in prioritizing your network more positively without the huge issues that may be a difficult task to handle. Check out all the methods outlined in the above discussion and share your experiences with us. Also, share any of the doubts you may have so that we can guide you to the appropriate resolutions.