How do I change the order of WiFi Networks in Windows 8.1 to give priority to one over another?

Solution 1:

Windows 8 lacks a GUI way to do this which is unfortunate.

1. At an elevated (admin) command prompt run the following command to see the available wireless networks and their current priorities:

   netsh wlan show profiles
   

   

2. Note the name of the interface and the wireless network and use the following command to change the latter's priority:

   netsh wlan set profileorder name="w1r3l3$$" interface="Wi-Fi" priority=1
   

3. Running netsh wlan show profiles again will show you the changed order.

_Source

Naturally people have made GUIs to overcome this ridiculous omission, so you can use something like WiFi Profile Manager 8 instead:

Solution 2:

I wrote a script to allow users to edit this using notepad:

# Prioritize WLAN networks

# Prepare the temporary file
$tempfile = "$($Env:Temp)\wifiprio.txt"
Set-Content -Path $tempfile -encoding UTF8 @"
# Edit (re-arrange) the list of networks, putting the highest priority at the top.
# Empty lines and lines starting with # will be ignored.
#
"@

# Add the network list to the file
& netsh wlan show profiles | Where-Object {$_ -match(":")} | ForEach-Object {(($_.split(":"))[1]).trim()} | Out-File $tempfile -encoding UTF8 -Append

# Allow the user to edit the list
Start-Process -FilePath "notepad.exe" -ArgumentList $tempfile -PassThru -Wait

# Get the edited list
$networks = Get-Content $tempfile | Where-Object {$_ -notmatch "^\s*#"} | Where-Object {$_ -notmatch "^\s*$"}

# Clean up
Remove-Item $tempfile 

# Set priority according to the edited list
$priority = 1
ForEach ($network in $networks)
{
    & netsh wlan set profileorder name="$($network)" interface="Wi-Fi" priority=$priority
    $priority += 1
}