Stop Windows 10 From Connecting Automatically to a Wi-Fi Network

Once you have connected to any wireless network in Windows 10, the operating system will remember this network and will try to re-connect to it once it is in range. If you are not happy with this behavior, you can make Windows 10 stop automatically re-connecting to certain wireless networks. Here is how.

While it is easily possible to make Windows 10 forget a Wi-Fi network, this may not convenient if you plan to connect to it manually in the future. Instead, it is more useful to configure the OS to not auto-reconnect to certain networks. There are a number of ways how it can be done.

To stop Windows 10 From Connecting to a Wi-Fi Network automatically, do the following.

1. Click on the network icon in the system tray.
2. In the network flyout, click on the network name.
3. Uncheck the option Connect automatically.

There are alternative ways to change this option after you've connected to a network. You can use either Settings, the classic adapter properties dialog or the netsh console utility.

Using Settings

1. Open Settings.
2. Go to Network & intenet - Wi-Fi.
3. Click on the network's name.
4. On the next page, toggle the switch Connect automatically when in range.

Using adapter properties

1. Open the Control Panel.
2. Go to Control Panel\Network and Internet\Network and Sharing Center.
3. On the right, click on the Change adapter settings link.
4. Double-click your Wi-Fi connection to open its properties.
5. Click on the Wireless Properties button.
6. In the next dialog, disable the option Connect automatically when this network is in range.

You are done.

Using the Netsh console tool

1. Open an elevated command prompt.
2. Type the following command to see all the wireless network profiles:

   netsh wlan show profiles

   . For example:

3. To set prevent Windows 10 from connecting to the desired wireless network, execute the following command:

   netsh wlan set profileparameter name="profile name" connectionmode=manual

   Substitute the "profile name" with the actual value. In my case, it is "winaero".

4. To restore the default behavior, you can use the next command:

   netsh wlan set profileparameter name="profile name" connectionmode=auto

5. To see the current status of the option, execute the command:

   netsh wlan show profile "profile name"

   See the line "Connection mode" as shown below:

That's it!