Wireless networks are much more widely used today than wired connections. They offer the possibility of connecting more equipment at the same time and also technology has improved significantly, so we have better speed, stability and quality. However, it also has its negative points, such as increased battery consumption or even security risks. We are going to explain how to prevent Windows from constantly searching for Wi-Fi networks . It is something that we can easily configure.
Why prevent Windows from searching for wireless networks
This is an option that we have in the Windows operating system . We can ask ourselves why we want to prevent it from continuously searching for Wi-Fi networks and we are going to give the main reasons. It is useful in certain circumstances and it can also avoid some problems that may appear.
Battery saving
One of the main reasons to prevent Windows from constantly searching for wireless networks is to save battery power. It is a reality that having Wi-Fi activated in a laptop while we are using the battery can affect its useful life and last less time.
Therefore, one of the reasons for wanting to configure automatic network discovery in Windows is to make the battery last longer. In this way we will avoid excessive consumption that could affect us. This is something that can especially concern when using a laptop, which are the most used when we are traveling or anywhere far from an outlet.
Security
We must also take security into account. It is a very important factor in getting everything to work properly. If we connect to an insecure network we can have problems. We don’t really know who can be behind a public Wi-Fi.
We can say then that we can prevent Windows from automatically searching for networks so that one that may be insecure does not appear and we connect. In this way we will only enter those really reliable, those in which we connect manually.
Avoid connecting to networks with worse coverage
We could also connect to a network that has worse coverage. This is common if, for example, we have repeaters nearby and, as we are constantly looking for networks, it connects to one that we are not interested in at that moment because it has a worse signal quality and we may have problems.
We will also avoid this if we decide to configure Windows so that it is not constantly looking for wireless networks. Thus we will always connect to the one that interests us the most, the one that can give the best signal at that time.
Steps to configure Windows so that it does not search for Wi-Fi
After explaining the main reasons that could push us to prevent Windows from continuously searching for wireless networks, we are going to explain what we must do to do so. It is a very simple procedure and for which we will not have to install any additional add-ons. We are only going to use the configuration of the operating system.
The first thing we are going to do is go to Home, we look for Services and we access. There we will see a large list of operating system services that we will be able to modify. All of them will be configured as they come when installing the OS, unless we have made any changes. We can also simply access it with the Windows + R key combination and run Services.msc .
When we are at this point, we must look for the WLAN Automatic Configuration service. We have to click with the right mouse button and click on Stop. Later we enter Properties and Start Type, which will be marked as Automatic, we change it to Manual .
Once this is done, we simply have to click Apply and we will accept the changes . From that moment Windows will not be searching for Wi-Fi networks automatically. We must also restart the computer for the changes to take effect correctly.
In the event that at any given moment we want to return to the previous state, we want Windows to automatically search for networks again, we just have to follow the steps that we have explained again and, this time, we change again to Automatic. We accept, restart the computer and that’s it.
How to stop Windows from connecting to a certain network
After having explained what we can do to prevent Windows from automatically searching for Wi-Fi networks, we are now going to focus on preventing it from connecting to a specific network. We may not want it to automatically access a Wi-Fi that we have previously connected to or even an access point that we have at home.
We can also do this easily. It can be interesting for the same reasons we mentioned earlier. It is especially useful so that it does not connect only to a certain network where the signal reaches us weak.
If at some point we connect to a network and now we are not interested in having it connect automatically, we can avoid it. To do this we have to go to Start, enter Settings, go to Network and Internet, click on Wi-Fi and access Manage known networks .
There we will see the list of all the wireless networks to which we have ever connected. It does not matter if they have open networks or have a password. What Windows does is store this information to connect quickly as soon as it detects it. It is interesting to save time, but sometimes we may not want this.
What we have to do is find the network that we do not want to connect to. It can be a Wi-Fi repeater, for example. We click on the name and a small box will appear where we will see the Stop remembering button .
Simply by carrying out this step, Windows will automatically stop connecting to that wireless network. It will delete all stored information, something that includes the password as well. If in the future we want to connect again we will have to click Connect and manually enter the access code.
Therefore, by following these steps that we have indicated, we can also prevent Windows from automatically connecting to a specific network. It is an alternative if we do not want it to stop constantly searching for networks, but we do not want it to be able to connect to a certain network. It is a simple and fast process, which we can also easily reverse if at any given moment we want it to reconnect.