Unable to manage wireless settings / profiles in Windows 8 or Windows 8.1

Problem

Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 has a more restrictive graphical user interface for managing Wireless settings / profiles.

Solution

Manage the WiFi Profiles/settings via a elevated command prompt.

Open the start screen and type “CMD” Right click on the “Command Prompt” icon and click “Run as administrator”

Open Elivated Command Window
How to open an elevated command windows in windows 8 and 8.1

To show wireless network profiles that already exist do the following:

In the command Prompt window type the following command “netsh wlan show profile”
Enter "netsh wlan show profile"

Enter “netsh wlan show profile”

This will display all the wireless networks your computer has settings for:

List of networks the machine has details for
List of networks the machine has details for

To show setting for a particulate wireless network profile, in this example we will look up the details for WiFi network “MyWiFi” you add the name=Network_Name to the command:

“netsh wlan show profile name=MyWiFi”

Show the wireless setting for network "MyWiFi"
Show the wireless setting for network “MyWiFi”

To display the wireless network details INCLUDING the wireless key add the command “key=clear”. in this example we will display the key for the network “MyWiFi”

Enter: “netsh wlan show profile name=MyWiFi key=clear”

Show the wireless setting for network "MyWiFi" plus the WEP/WPA Key
Show the wireless setting for network “MyWiFi” plus the WEP/WPA Key

Displaying the key will only work if the command prompt window is run as administrator

To delete a network profile use the “delete profile name=” command. In the example we will delete MyWiFi network

"netsh wlan delete profile name=MyWiFi"

Deleting the network profile/settings will only work if the Command Prompt window is run as administrator

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