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Whether you're toggling Wi-Fi off in specific locations, monitoring data usage, or blocking unwanted networks from appearing, the 7 features we're about to reveal will undoubtedly enhance your Wi-Fi experience.
Got any other handy Wi-Fi tricks up your sleeve for Windows 10? Share your insights in the comments section below.
Unveiling 7 Lesser-Known Wi-Fi Features in Windows 10
1. Re-Enable Wi-Fi After a Set Period
Imagine not wanting your Wi-Fi on 24/7 to preserve device battery life or simply to avoid distractions. Well, you don't have to remember to turn Wi-Fi back on. You can allow Windows to automatically enable Wi-Fi after a specific period.
To achieve this, press the Windows + I key combination to open Settings. In the Settings window, navigate to and click on Network & Internet => Wi-Fi. Slide the Wi-Fi toggle to Off.
The screen will display the menu Turn WiFi back on. By default, the option is set to Manually, but you can choose In 1 hour, In 4 hours, or In 1 day.
Additionally, if you turn off Wi-Fi via the icon on the Taskbar, you'll see similar options.
2. Check Network Speed
A network adapter is a hardware component that the system uses to communicate on a network. One of the 7 Wi-Fi features in Windows 10 that you might not know about is checking network speed, which helps you see the maximum receive and transmit speeds of the network adapter. Follow the steps below to perform this task:
First, press the Windows + X key combination to open the WinX Menu, then click on Command Prompt. Copy and paste the command below into the Command Prompt window:
netsh wlan show interfaces
This command will list all network adapters on your system along with their corresponding details. Check the Receive rate (Mbps) and Transmit rate (Mbps) lines to view the network adapter's limitations. Note that these are what the hardware can handle, not necessarily what you're paying your Internet service provider for.
To see how your network performs in practice, you can download, install, and run Microsoft's Network Speed Test app.
Download and install Network Speed Test here: Download Network Speed Test
All you need to do is launch the app, click Start, and wait about half a minute for the app to perform the test. Then you'll see the network upload and download speeds displayed on the screen. If you find the speed unsatisfactory, you can report it to your network provider for resolution or follow the 10 tips to boost your home Wi-Fi speed as guided by Mytour.
3. Create a Mobile Wi-Fi Hotspot
If you're using an Ethernet wired network connection on your computer, you can use it to create a Wi-Fi hotspot on Windows 10. Enabling Wi-Fi sharing on Windows 10 allows you to share your connection with other devices so they can connect to the network via Wi-Fi.
To begin, press the Windows + I key combination to open Settings. In the Settings window, navigate to Network & Internet => Mobile hotspot.
Here, in the Share my internet connection from menu, select your Ethernet connection.
Windows will automatically provide you with a network name and network password. These are the details other devices need to connect to your network. Click Edit if you want to change these details.
If you don't want other devices to turn on the mobile hotspot when you haven't activated it, simply drag the Turn on remotely slider to OFF.
Once ready, drag the Mobile hotspot slider to ON. Up to 8 devices can connect to your mobile hotspot at the same time.
It's not just Windows 10; you can easily set up Wi-Fi hotspot on Windows 11 too, enabling other devices to quickly catch Wi-Fi signals. The method for setting up Wi-Fi hotspot on Windows 11 will be shared in this article, so stay tuned.
- Read more: How to Set Up Wi-Fi Hotspot on Windows 11
4. Use Shortcut Keys to Toggle Wi-Fi On/Off
If you want to quickly toggle Wi-Fi on or off, the quickest way is to use shortcut keys. On your keyboard, you can see a row of function keys. However, using only these keys might not be sufficient.
Right-click on the desktop, select New => Shortcut. Enter the line below:
netsh interface set interface name='CHANGEME' admin=disabled
You'll need to replace CHANGEME with the name of your Wi-Fi. If you don't know what the Wi-Fi name is, right-click on the Wi-Fi icon on the Taskbar to display a list of all available connections.
Click on Next. This shortcut key is to turn off Wi-Fi. After setting an appropriate name, click on Finish.
Follow the same steps as above to create a shortcut key to turn on Wi-Fi, but enter the following command instead:
netsh interface set interface name='CHANGEME' admin=enabled
Remember to replace CHANGEME with the name of your Wi-Fi.
Once completed, these shortcut keys require running as Admin. Right-click on each shortcut, select Properties => Advanced… => Run as administrator => OK.
In the Properties window, click on Shortcut key. Press any key combination you want to use to activate the shortcut. Once done, click OK.
5. Utilize Metered Connection
You can set your Wi-Fi connection as a “metered” one. This allows you to control and limit network data usage.
For example, controlling disallow automatic downloads of updates, refreshing tiles on the Start menu, or syncing OneDrive data.
To activate this feature, press the Windows + I key combination to open the Settings window. Here, find and select Network & Internet => WiFi => Manage known networks.
Here, select your Wi-Fi connection from the list and click on Properties. Finally, drag the Set as metered connection slider to ON.
6. Block Specific Wi-Fi Networks
You can prevent specific Wi-Fi networks from appearing on your computer by using the name of that Wi-Fi network. This is useful in cases where you want users to only connect to or view networks that you've approved.
First, press the Windows + X key combination to open the WinX menu, then click on Command Prompt (Admin).
To allow specific networks to appear, copy and paste the command below into the Command Prompt window:
netsh wlan add filter permission=allow ssid='CHANGEME' networktype=infrastructure
Replace CHANGEME with the Wi-Fi name you want to allow. Run the command below multiple times if you want to allow multiple different networks.
When ready, run the following command to block all other networks from appearing:
netsh wlan add filter permission=denyall networktype=infrastructure
Alternatively, if you only want to block specific networks, copy and paste the command below:
netsh wlan add filter permission=block ssid='CHANGEME' networktype=infrastructure
Replace CHANGEME with the Wi-Fi network name you want to block.
In case you want to revert to the initial settings, run the commands again but replace add with delete.
To view the list of active filters, run the command below:
netsh wlan show filters
7. Monitor Data Usage
If you want to know how much data each application on the system is using, Windows 10 will display data usage over the past 30 days.
Press the Windows + I key combination to open Settings. Navigate to Network & Internet => Data usage => View usage details. Under the Show usage from menu, select WiFi.
If you want to reset the calculations within 30 days, click on Reset usage stats.
To view real-time network usage, press the CTRL + Shift + Esc key combination to open Task Manager. In the Task Manager window, navigate to the Processes tab and look for the Network column to see data usage measured in Megabytes per second for each application and background process.
Here, Mytour has just introduced you to 7 Wi-Fi features on Windows 10 that you might not know. As this operating system is continuously evolving, Microsoft may add more features in the future.
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