Windows 10: Network Settings - Private or Public

I currently have two machines, one runs Win11 and the other Win8. Both connect via ethernet cable to a netgear switch which in turn ethernets to the BT Hub - so both are connected to the Internet. I run AVG VPN on both. I recently made both machines discoverable and can access the drives of each from&

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Change Network from Public to Private

Hi,

Thank you for your interest in Windows 10.

I suggest you to follow the steps below to
change your network from Public to Private:

• 
  Type PowerShell in Search Window and then right click on it and click on
  Run as Administrator.
  
• 
  Type the following command to find your interface Index:
  Get-NetConnectionProfile
  
• 
  Use your interface index (for example 5) with this command:
  Set-NetConnectionProfile -InterfaceIndex 5 -NetworkCategory Private
  
• 
  Now reboot the device and check if the network has changed from Public to Private.
  

Hope this information is helpful. Please do let us know if you need further assistance, we’ll be glad to assist you.

 

How to change the network setting (Private, public, etc)

this answer from a different Microsoft page worked for me


Giridhar
J replied on

• Microsoft

Accomplishments

• Microsoft

Hi,

Thank you for your interest in Windows 10.

I suggest you to follow the steps below to
change your network from Public to Private:

• 
  Type PowerShell in Search Window and then right click on it and click on
  Run as Administrator.
  
• 
  Type the following command to find your interface Index:
  Get-NetConnectionProfile
  
• 
  Use your interface index (for example 5) with this command:
  Set-NetConnectionProfile -InterfaceIndex 5 -NetworkCategory Private
  
• 
  Now reboot the device and check if the network has changed from Public to Private.
  

Hope this information is helpful. Please do let us know if you need further assistance, we’ll be glad to assist you.

 

Set Network Location to Private or Public in Windows 10  

Hi Brink and thank you for the welcome

I tried what you suggested but when doing this, i noticed that whenever i am connected to my VPN, the Windows network shows up as "unidentified network" instead of network 1,2,3 or whatever. So when i went into regedit and looked for networks, i found some but none called unidentified.
There was one network with the value 0 so i changed it to 1 (private) but after checking, my VPN connection still shows as public.

I am not really sure why it says unidentified network in Windows when i am connected to the VPN but it seems that this is the cause for the problem. If i could only find the VPN network in the list of networks in regedit, i think i would be able to change the value to 1.

Hmm..not sure how to proceed with this. Any ideas?