Windows 10: Set Network Location to Private or Public in Windows 10

Fred,

Is this for a Wi-Fi or Ethernet connection?

Depending on what build you have installed, see if clicking on Advanced options at step 6 in OPTION ONE instead may help.

 

New information:
I used PowerShell commands to set the network type to Private. That seemed to work.
This morning when the user came in, it was set to Public again. I don't believe the computer was rebooted but it could have been.
This is an Ethernet connection...

 

Any updates or new network drivers installed that may have reset it back to Public?

 

Interesting question....
I'll look into it.
And, yes, I believe it could happen.
But, I must say, if an update or a new driver installation would change key system settings then something is clearly askew.
One of my old bosses was fond of saying: "The tail shall not wag the dog!"

 

Hi there. first time poster here... so i am having the same issue as above... i dont have the "make PC discoverable" to be able to toggle it on or off.









my UAC settings are set as below also...

Its really doing my head in not being able to switch between private and public... am i missing something else...?

 

Hello @DJPerkins, and welcome to Ten Forums. *Smile

It looks like you have an older build of Windows 10 than build 14316. Do you have the setting when you click on "Advanced options" instead?

 

I just did a set of tests on the one machine we have that has this problem. i.e. it sets itself to Public and then we have to change it back to Private. But, the familiar "Make this PC discoverable" slide switch control is missing!

I tried UAC at the 2nd level (from the top) and it seemed to not help.
Today I tried that again, starting at the bottom setting for UAC and the "Make this PC discoverable" slide switch control" appeared.
Then I tried the 3rd level and it remained.
Then I tried the 2nd level and it remained.
Then I tried the 1st level and it went away.
So, either it was being strange when I first tested at the 2nd level or I made a mistake that time.
This one now appears to be working as advertised.

I still don't know why it would switch on its own to Public. We replaced the cable from the wall to the local switch yesterday as it looked to be of poor workmanship. Strange that no other computers on that switch were having this same problem but maybe Windows 10 is more sensitive to network connection intermittencies??

 

Great news Fred.

Did you have any updates get installed before it happened? These have often reset Windows settings back to default.

 

Updates setting Windows back to default is scary. It would obviate perhaps considerable investment in configurations.
But no, I don't know of any. The switching back behavior has been frequent.

 

Under the advanced options i just have the above *Sad

 

Odd. It looks like you may have to use one of the other options instead for now. *Sad

 

I would note that to go to the last setting in UAC, you have to reboot for it to take effect.

An hypothesis:
If the discovery slide switch doesn't appear at the 3rd level of UAC then:
Go to the lowest level and reboot.
Then confirm that the slide switch appears.
Then move up one level to the 3rd level and try again (apparently no need for a reboot here).
Then move up to the 2nd level and try again (also no need for a reboot).
Of course, you could skip the middle step at level 3 but I was curious.

It's not a very "logical" thing to try. But then with all their logic, how often do we see computers behavior be illogical? Often enough.
Example: to get a setting to work when it's already set: unset it and then reset it. Actual cause is likely an errant bit.

 

I have been a Fly on the Wall since i started this thread but I have noticed that most of the other people posting have another problem i have seen as well. On some systems it is nearly impossible to get all those "default option displays" to show up. If they are not there, you cannot do it. I also have not seen any specific reason for this to happen and have even seen it act one way sometimes and on other occasions it seems they are all there.
I have even seen it NOT be there one minute and I swear when i go out and come back then it IS there. Just last night, i ran into a similar issue with the desktop background. I had a solid color. I experimented with using a picture, then tried to go back to a solid color.

Unfortunately, when i picked solid color.. i was not given any colors to chose from, If i chose to manually select the "accent colors" I got the usual layout pallet to pick from and these did change when chosen. But the desktop background was stuck on the picture. It refused to go back to a color. In desperation, i chose Hi Def and of course THAT worked but who wants a fluorescent green screen!

After much searching i found this command >'C:\Windows\System32\control.exe /name Microsoft.Personalization /page pageWallpaper'
This worked. I added that to a desktop shortcut so i wont get stuck with photos again but it was still an odd thing to need it.

 

Thanks for all the great info. I wish there was an "already been done" script to take the information obtained fromthe first scan and use it to display options to a user that would show them the cvurrent settings on each wifi profile and allow them to choose from a list of options (0,1,2 etc) and after they choose the one they want it would change the current value for the selected wireless profile to match the desired profile type.

While the Start>Settings> etc method in Windows 10 does work (when it displays as it should) it is difficult to explain to most people and they invariably end up clicking "NO" when asked "Do you want other devices on the network to be able to see you.." which of course puts them right back to PUBLIC again. I have searched everywhere for a way to "do it all for them" in a PowerShell script even if it meant forcing every profile to be Private but a properly written utility that would display their options and allow them to choose would of course be best.
As a matter of interest, one person suggested Code: $net = get-netconnectionprofile;Set-NetConnectionProfile -Name $net.Name -NetworkCategory Private[/quote] But when I tried this on my own system that I had deliberately set to public as a test, it did nothing. Is this one of those "Windows 10 <things>" where normal scripts just wont cut it?

 

Hello Questorfla, *Smile

It should work. I added OPTION FIVE to help with this. Be sure that you ran the command in an elevated PowerShell.

For a script, you could do so with a .bat file with the command like below in it, then right click on the .bat file, and click on "Run as administrator".

Code: PowerShell $net = get-netconnectionprofile;Set-NetConnectionProfile -Name $net.Name -NetworkCategory Private[/quote]
I'll work on a .vbs script now that will do the elevation and run the command all in one to make it easier, and will add it to the tutorial shortly to help. *Smile