Windows 10 LTSC: Deleted guest wifi profile shows up again
we are running Windows 10 LTSC on our kiosk computers. At one location, they're connected to the internet via wifi. At that location they have a wifi set up for the kiosk (WPA2) and another open wifi for guests. The kiosk should always be connected to the WPA2 network but for some reason it also discovers the guest wifi, adds it as a known network, and connects to that instead.
So far we have tried the following solutions multiple times each:
- delete the guest wifi via the "Known Networks" GUI
- delete it via the command line:
netsh wlan delete profile "guests" - keep it in the list but disable the automatic connection
- disable Hotstop 2.0 via the GUI & via the registry
- disable wifi sensing via the registry
None of those approaches seems to work: the guest wifi will show up as a known network again after a short while and sometimes connect to it causing issues.
Is there any setting which we are missing? Is there a good way to find out why the guest wifi shows up again and connects?
Thank you for any ideas & solutions.
Solution 1:
Windows doesn’t provide any options in the Settings app or Control Panel, but you can easily block a WiFi network using the Command Prompt. To block a WiFi network, all you need is the network name or SSID. You can get a WiFi network name by looking at the network connections pop-up. (Click on the network icon in the taskbar.) When you block a WiFi network, it will no longer appear in the network connections pop-up, and you won’t be able to connect to it.
To start, search for “Command Prompt” in the Start menu, right-click on it and select the option “Run as Administrator.”
In the command prompt window, execute the below command to block the WiFi network. Replace “WiFi Network Name” with the actual SSID or network name.
netsh wlan add filter permission=block ssid="WiFi Network Name" networktype=infrastructure
As soon as you execute the command, said WiFi network will be added to the blacklist filter, and you will be no longer be able to see or connect to it.
In the future, if you want to allow the WiFi network, all you have to do is to delete the entry from the blacklist. To do that, execute the below command while replacing “WiFi Network Name” with the actual blocked network name.
netsh wlan delete filter permission=block ssid="WiFi Network Name" networktype=infrastructure
If you don’t remember the actual name, then use the below command. It will list the names of all the allowed and blocked WiFi networks.
netsh wlan show filters
Follow up addition by the author of the question:
To add to this, there is also a way to whitelist a single (or more) ssid and block all others:
"netsh wlan add filter permission=allow ssid="WIFI-Name" networktype=infrastructure" & "netsh wlan add filter permission=denyall networktype=infrastructure"