Windows 10: Windows 10 Hardware Wifi Switch Behavior (vs Windows 7)

My system is a Dell Latitude E6330, with a physical wifi switch.

I'll often use the wifi switch to toggle off the internal wifi adapter, and plug in an external USB wifi adapter with an antenna to get better range.

However, upon upgrading from Windows 7 to Windows 10, flipping the wifi switch now puts the entire OS into "Airplane Mode," disabling *all* wifi adapters - both internal and USB. This means the switch is no longer functional for me: every time I want to use the external wifi adapter, I now have to manually go into device manager, find the internal wifi card, disable it, & do the opposite when I'm done. Rather than just flipping that switch and plugging in the external adapter.

How can I make the hardware wifi switch work properly again, like it did under Windows 7? i.e. the wifi switch on the laptop should only turn off the laptop's internal wifi - not put the entire system into airplane mode?

Thanks in advance *Smile

:)

 

windows 10

Please see:

Windows 10 Vs Windows 8 Vs Windows 7: The pros and cons
2. Windows 10, which uses UWP platform.

 

How can I configure Samsung Focus so that it won't power off when it is locked or so that confirmation is required to turn it off?

I can confirm that this feature is not device specific. The phone is switched off if you keep pressing the power button for a few seconds. Hardware manufacturer can influence this by designing the button so it can't be pressed inadvertently. There is currently
no way to modify this behavior in Windows Phone 7.

 

It was most likely a driver configuration offered by HP for that hardware switch. Windows 10 replaced it with it's own to then use Airplane Mode.

The only option I see on getting it back to how it used to be is to make sure you are fully updated with all of the available HP Windows 10 drivers.

 

Interesting thought. Do you have any idea which driver it would be? If what you say is the case, it seems most likely to me that it would be the driver for the wifi card itself - but on my system, that's provided by Intel, not Microsoft (which is the same as it was before). So if it's indeed a driver, it would probably have to be something else...but it's hard to know which it might be...

 

Well, HP may inject additional content into the driver before it gets to you. Windows 10 would have updated the drivers to the latest manufacturer provided ones or used a generic driver.

I would check HP's website and grab all of the latest ones.

 

Actually, now that I think about it it can't be the wifi driver. Not only is this not the wifi card that came with the laptop (I replaced it some years later), but the driver I'm using isn't even from Dell. Plus, the hardware switch always disabled just the internal wifi card (not all network connections on the system), for both the original wifi card that came with the laptop and the one I swapped it with later. So if it is a specific driver, seems like it definitely can't be the wifi card's...

 

You could write a script that will enable or disable either of the wireless adapters.

Here's my wi-fi disable script called "Wireless.disable.wsf".
From a command line run it by typing "cscript Wireless.disable.wsf". Code: <package> <comment> Wireless.disable.wsf - Disables your Wi-Fi Connection </comment> <job> <object id="objShell" progid="Shell.Application"/> <script language="VBScript"> Option Explicit Dim objCP, objDisable, objEnable Dim clsConn, clsThisConn, clsVerb Dim strNetConn, strConn, strEnable, strDisable Dim bEnabled, bDisabled strConn = "Wi-Fi" ' This must match the name in the Network Connections control panel strEnable = "En&able" strDisable = "Disa&ble" Set objCP = objShell.Namespace(49) ' 49 = Network Connections Set clsThisConn = Nothing For Each clsConn in objCP.Items If clsConn.Name = strConn Then Set clsThisConn = clsConn Exit For End If Next If clsThisConn is Nothing Then WScript.Echo "Wi-Fi connection not found" WScript.Quit End If bEnabled = False Set objDisable = Nothing For Each clsVerb in clsThisConn.verbs If clsVerb.name = strDisable Then Set objDisable = clsVerb bEnabled = True End If Next If bEnabled Then objDisable.DoIt WScript.Echo "Wi-Fi disabled" Else WScript.Quit WScript.Echo "Wi-Fi was already disabled" End If ' Give the connection time to stop/start WScript.Sleep 1000 </script> </job> </package>[/quote] And here's the corresponding enable script: Code: <package> <comment> Wireless.disable.wsf - Disables your Wi-Fi Connection </comment> <job> <object id="objShell" progid="Shell.Application"/> <script language="VBScript"> Option Explicit Dim objCP, objDisable, objEnable Dim clsConn, clsThisConn, clsVerb Dim strNetConn, strConn, strEnable, strDisable Dim bEnabled, bDisabled strConn = "Wi-Fi" ' This must match the name in the Network Connections control panel strEnable = "En&able" strDisable = "Disa&ble" Set objCP = objShell.Namespace(49) ' 49 = Network Connections Set clsThisConn = Nothing For Each clsConn in objCP.Items If clsConn.Name = strConn Then Set clsThisConn = clsConn Exit For End If Next If clsThisConn is Nothing Then WScript.Echo "Wi-Fi connection not found" WScript.Quit End If bEnabled = False Set objDisable = Nothing For Each clsVerb in clsThisConn.verbs If clsVerb.name = strDisable Then Set objDisable = clsVerb bEnabled = True End If Next If bEnabled Then objDisable.DoIt WScript.Echo "Wi-Fi disabled" Else WScript.Quit WScript.Echo "Wi-Fi was already disabled" End If ' Give the connection time to stop/start WScript.Sleep 1000 </script> </job> </package>[/quote] You might need to modify this line in each script: Code: strConn = "Wi-Fi" ' This must match the name in the Network Connections control panel[/quote] In control panel my wi-fi connection has the name you see above. Yours will be different, especially your external/plug-in wireless adapter.

Rather than open a command window to run these, you could create a shortcut for each script, and then just click the appropriate shortcut to enable or disable your wi-fi.

 

That's pretty handy, thanks. But my system does have a *physical* wifi switch (which I can toggle without even waking up the PC, or while it's booting, etc). That's what I'd like to get working properly again...