Windows 10: USB Wi-Fi adapter not showing on tray

Latest driver installed, StarTech USB300WN2X2D, Mediatek/Ralink RT3572L

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:)

 

Wireless usb adapter

Hi!

I just plug in the usb adapter and let windows search for drivers, I do not use the disk that came with the wireless plug. Use the connection manager in system tray to configure the adapter. There is also Wi-Fi in start > settings > network & Internet >
Wi-Fi

 

No mobile Hotspot option in my desktop computer.

Hi MercyMonica,

to check if your desktop PC is equipped with the wi-fi adapter, go to Device Manager> network adapters, check if it is present. Or post the screenshot.

If the wi-fi adapter is not present, you can purchase and install a compatible wi-fi usb adapter (usb key wi-fi) for Windows 10.

Note: What DaveM121 claims is not true, mobile hotspot must be able to work even if the Wi-Fi adapter driver does not support the hosted network.

Mobile hotspot and hosted network use completely different network protocols.

 

Is this a driver for Windows 10? I am waiting for one from D-Link for my USB Wi-Fi adapter.

 

no, the driver it's for windows 8 but it works, the only problem is can't connect/switch from tray list

 

When I upgraded from Windows 8.1 Pro my driver and the Wi-Fi management software seemed to work too. My system works much better since I uninstalled the software and remove that device. I know D-Link is working on a Windows 10 driver and I will wait for it.

 

November version fixed this

 

Just tried to install my DWA-182 adapter on the latest Windows 10 Pro build, the D-Link driver install program got stuck in the middle of the install. I had to end that task and now whatever it did won't uninstall. :-(

 

As a fellow Canadian, I assume you are going to the D Link Canada support site to get the driver for the DWA - 182. For some strange reason the U.S. site has driver 3.03 B04 while the CDN site has 3.05. That's the driver as long as you have firmware C (not A) on your adapter, which you can read from the box it came with.

That 3.05 driver is a Windows 10 driver, at least that's what D Link told me and if you unzip the driver files you will see a directory for Win 10 x64, x86. But you are right, the driver won't install. Why? Because it's not digitally signed. I explained this to D Link in a 35 minute chat. Finally they started to listen and said they would investigate and get back to me. Still waiting.

What does work (all the time) are Brinks Windows 10 tutorials. If you search, he has one somewhere on how to install a digitally UNSIGNED driver. You restart in trouble shoot mode and select the option (7 maybe) to install an unsigned driver. I did that to see if the 3.05 would install. I didn't want the software, just the driver and wanted to make sure the files from the d link windows 10 X64 driver got installed. I unzipped the driver files, device manager, have disk and pointed to the unzipped win 10 x64 d link driver. It took a while, but it installed. So now it says I have D Link driver 1030.0.505, 2015 installed and to no surprise to me it says "not digitally signed". Thank you Brink.

The driver works but I find it flakey. It causes slow shut down as "Switch USB 2.0/3.0" often hangs at shutdown. My system only supports 2.0 so in the advanced driver options I set it to USB 2.0 instead of automatic. That helped a bit but I still find shutdown/restart slow with the d link driver.

My laptop (older that my Alienware) has wireless on the motherboard. No issues at all. I find Windows 10 drivers for USB wireless to be a nightmare. Microsoft needs to have a chat with these manufacturers. Nothing about Windows 10 can be enjoyed when one constantly has connectivity issues because of poor or no wireless USB drivers released by the manufacturers.

 

Yes I went to the CA d-link website and got the latest driver for my "A1" adapter. What I will try is connect the laptop with an Ethernet cable and then connect the adapter. Maybe Microsoft will just install the driver.

 

Oh, firmware "A". That's unfortunate. I had an Asus N53 adapter. It was causing me problems, very slow downloads. I bought the D Link DWA-160. I asked D link when a Win 10 driver would be available. Kept getting "No ETA" from them. Not good. I asked them what adapter has windows 10 drivers as I can still return the DWA -160. They told me DWA-182 but get the adapter with firmware C, which is what I have.

That CDN site has a floating chat window. I assume you have or will ask them when a Windows 10 driver for firmware A will be out. Honestly hope you won't or didn't get the "No ETA" response. No drivers or drivers where the digital signature has expired. Man, Microsoft needs to give D Link a tutorial.

 

Yeah, I got A'd by D-Link. *Sad

I just plugged in the adapter and then went into the device manager to update the driver. I browsed to the location where I had unzipped the driver and selected the Win8.1 x64 folder. Windows installed that driver and I got a 866.5 Mb/sec connection. I rebooted a couple of times and it seems to be working. *Party Maybe the latest Windows build 11082 changed something. Right now the only thing I don't have is the D-Link management software and I don't care about that.

As usual after working for several re-starts it worked fine and then it stopped working. No reason why.

Ak

 

I think there might be a UAC Windows 10 issue in running the D Link setup file. I believe there is yet another Brink tutorial for that. I don't care either as I don't want the management software installed. I told D Link that even their install CD with the C firmware adapter won't run under Windows 10 (perhaps UAC). They said "what?"

I'm getting 32.2MBPS download speed which I believe is 3.9 megs per second. My plan from my provider is 25MBPS speed so I'm happy with those results. I did notice, however, that my speed is much slower under 2.4G band as opposed to 5G because of interference. In advanced driver options you can set it to 5G preferred or perhaps do that with your provider's software to see where you get the best performance.

 

I gave up on the Dlink DWA-182 A1 version; I doubt Dlink will put out a new driver for a product they no longer sell. I just bought myself a C1 version on Boxing Day - it was too cheap to resist. *Smile It installed, it connects every time I boot up and I am getting 867mbps connections. I also have not suddenly lost the Internet connection while downloading.

Also for a long time my laptop has not been shutting down properly and it always resumes and I blamed Windows 10. All of a sudden my laptop shuts down properly and I think it is because of the newly installed Windows 10 64bit driver from Dlink. You need to be wary of 8.1 drivers that you are told work with Windows 10.

 

I couldn't agree more. When I bought the D Link DWA 160 I noticed the box said Windows 8.1. I called the sales clerk at Staples who said he "thinks" it will work with Windows 10. Wasn't good enough for me so he called the manager who went in the back office, came back and said it will work on Windows 10. Didn't occur to me that he likely was just talking to his wife, finishing his lunch or flipping a coin on the yes/no answer he would give me. My desktop wouldn't even shut off with the DWA 160 and its "Windows 8.1" driver.

Before returning the DWA 160, I went to the driver download sites of manufacturers, D Link, Asus and Netgear, looking for Windows 10 drivers. There was the D link DWA 182 version C, Netgear WNDA 3100 V2&V3 and I believe the Asus AC 51 AC600 adapters with Windows 10 driver downloads. Staples had the DWA 182 so I got that. I have no connection problems with the 182 and the windows 10 driver although I'm still looking for a signed version of the driver. I do still get the message "Switch USB 2.0/3.0 is preventing shutdown" but it only takes a few seconds for Windows 10 to shut it down and close properly.

And indeed, I suspect many people upgrading to Windows 10 with lost connectivity and shut down issues will be thinking it's a Windows 10 issue when in cases like this it's obviously USB wireless manufacturers' Windows 8 drivers causing the problem. To add to that, you have stores telling you that the Windows 8 driver will work just fine with Windows 10. Not always the case.

IMHO this is a serious issue. I'm sure people especially on this site have more impressive start menus than I have, but I love my start menu. I have Cortana tracking certain stocks, at a glace I see the price of oil, important news, traffic in my area, etc. None of these Windows 10 features will work if you can't connect to the internet which is why I keep saying Microsoft needs to step in and have a chat with these manufacturers or produce a list themselves of USB wireless adapters that will work with Windows 10. If they produce such a list, I haven't seen it.