Manage Wireless Networks: Advanced Program to Control WiFi

Main features

Manage Wireless Networks is an application from NirSoft that is completely free, it works with Windows Vista or higher operating systems, including Windows 10, in addition, it is compatible with 32-bit and 64-bit operating systems. It does not need any type of installation because it is a portable program, ideal for not having to install anything else and simply run it whenever we need it. This program is capable of displaying a large amount of information about all the wireless profiles of our computer, even if the WiFi network adapter is not activated, because it obtains the information directly from the operating system with all the details.

For each WiFi network profile that we have saved on our computer, we are going to obtain all this information:

• Profile name, which is always the name of the SSID
• SSID (WiFi network name)
• Connection type
• Connection mode
• Authentication
• Encryption
• Key type
• Auto switch
• Hidden SSID?
• Profile position in terms of priority
• Creation date and time
• Modification date and time
• And other display options

This program will also allow us to edit all the profiles we want easily and quickly, editing an XML file and using the correct syntax so that it does not return an error, this is only recommended for advanced users because you could damage the profile and you will have to delete it and create it from scratch with Windows. We could also quickly change the form of manual connection to automatic and vice versa, in addition, we could change the different authentication and encryption modes, change the profile name, SSID and even copy the wireless profiles to import them into another computer easily and quickly. Some of these changes are necessary with the WiFi network card activated, otherwise they cannot be applied.

To download this program we simply have to go to the official website, click on “Download Manage Wireless Networks” and unzip the ZIP file that will automatically download, once unzipped, we can see the following files:

We can execute the ManageWirelessNetworks.exe file as a user or as an administrator, we will simply double click and it will load the program to read all the profiles of the WiFi networks stored in the operating system.

Operation and available options

In the main menu of the Manage Wireless Networks program we can see all the profiles that we currently have on this computer, and we can also see the configuration of the different WiFi networks regarding:

• SSID (WiFi network name)
• Connection type
• Automatic or manual connection
• Authentication “Open”, “WEP”, WPA of different versions, even WPA3 SAE is recognized correctly.
• Encryption used in the WiFi network
• Position in connection priority
• And other display options

If we click on any WiFi network with the right click of the mouse, we can view it in detail and make different configurations. For example, we can configure the automatic or manual connection mode of a certain WiFi network, as you can see here:

We also have the possibility to modify the encryption available in WiFi networks, in case of changing the encryption in the router or in the access point, we can do it directly from here without any problem, among the available options we have the following:

• WPAPSK-TKIP
• WPA2PSK-TKIP
• WPAPSK-AES
• WPA2PSK-AES
• WPA3SAE

The most normal thing today is to find WPA2PSK-AES and WPA3SAE networks, because the rest of the protocols are not secure and are canceled by the WiFi Alliance.

In the «File» section we can make these same configurations, but later we will have to select the profile or SSID to edit. Whereas before with the right click we choose the WiFi network to modify, in this section we first choose the action and later the SSID that we want to edit.

In the “Edit” section we can search for a specific profile that we have in the system, we can also copy the chosen profiles and even select or deselect all of them to perform different actions.

In the «View» section we can sort the different profiles according to the name of the WiFi network (SSID), type of connection, data encryption used and others. From here we can also show a QR code with the profile that we want, to easily connect with our smartphone. We can also show lines as if it were an Excel file, export a report in HTML of all the WiFi networks or only the selected ones, the possibility of choosing which columns we want to show, if we want to modify their size or refresh the display of all the networks.

In the «Help» section we can run this program as an administrator, but we will have exactly the same options available.

One of the most interesting parts is to be able to see the password of the WiFi network, or go directly to the Windows profile of a specific WiFi network, in order to edit it through the operating system itself and not use the XML editor that is much more professional and “manual” than doing it with Windows. If we right-click on any profile and choose “Edit Wireless Profile” we can go directly to the profile saved in the Windows 10 operating system.

Something that has caught our attention about this program is that it has been able to detect the WPA3-Personal protocol without any problem, for example, in the two networks of «this article» we use WPA3-SAE only, and it has detected it perfectly and No problem.

If we right-click on a specific SSID and choose “Properties” we will be able to see in detail all the available display options, except the WiFi password that appears in white. As you can see, it has correctly detected the WPA3SAE with AES encryption that we have configured in our wireless router.

Thanks to this Manage Wireless Networks tool from NirSoft we will be able to view all the profiles of the WiFi networks that we have configured on our computer, in addition, we can easily edit them in an advanced way through a built-in XML editor, however, our recommendation is that you click In “Edit Wireless Profile” to get the Windows configuration menu and you can edit the profile easily and quickly through the system.