Windows 10 Wifi Settings Not Showing Up

Oct 29, 2019 Firstly right-click on Internet icon which is appearing at the right bottom of your PC screen Then click on Open Network and Sharing Center Now at the left menu, you will see Change adapter settings, click on it. Then Right-click on WiFi and make sure that it is enabled if it is not enabled, click Enable.

This Video about how to fix the wifi which is not showing in windows 10 laptop particularly in HP laptops Download Link: http://support.hp.com/us-en/drivers. The Settings app is quite important in Windows and when it is not working, it can affect your work and productivity. Use the above methods to fix the issue. If your issue lies with Windows not starting, here’s the fix. Related: How to Set up and Use a Ram Drive in Windows 10; How to Fix Windows 10 Slow-Boot Problem.

When you try to connect to the internet on your laptop but your usual WiFi network is not showing up, it’s very frustrating. But don’t worry; you can fix it. Read on to learn how…

Try these fixes

Here are some solutions for you to try. You don’t need to try them all; just try each one in turn until everything’s working again.

Note: The screenshots below come from Windows 10, but the fixes also work on Windows 8 & 7.

Why is my WiFi network not showing up in my computer?

Generally speaking, there are several causes for this issue:

  • The WiFi problem
  • The connecting problem
  • The incorrect WiFi configuration in your WiFi router and your computer
  • The missing or outdated WiFi driver issue

However, the good news is you can easily troubleshoot your problem and solve it. This guideline introduces 6 methods for you to troubleshoot.

Method 1: Enable the WiFi service

The problem happens most likely because your Windows disables the WiFi service. You can’t connect to the WiFi if your Windows disables it. So you can try these steps to enable WiFi service. There are two places you can check.

Way 1: Enable the WiFi service with the WiFi switch

Note: First of all, make sure you are within the WiFi network range while you are following the steps below.

Some laptops, such as HP, Lenovo, Dell, have a switch or a key on your keyboard to turn on/off WiFi (like Fn+F5). Check the switch or keys and turn your WiFi service on.

Way 2: Check your network settings

If you don’t have the WiFi switch on your laptop or computer, you can check it in your system.

1) Right click the Internet icon, and click Open Network and Sharing Center.

2) Click Change adapter settings.

3) Right click WiFi, and click Enable. Note: if it has enabled, you will see Disable when right click on WiFi (also referred to Wireless Network Connection in different computers).

4) Restart your Windows and reconnect to your WiFi again.

Method 2: Turn on WLAN AutoConfig service

WLAN AutoConfig service (also referred to Wireless Configuration in Windows XP) can configure wireless security and connectivity settings. When enabled, WLAN AutoConfig settings apply to all IEEE 802.11 wireless network adapters installed on your computer. Moreover, when the WiFi becomes available, it will automatically connect to a preferred wireless network. You can follow these steps to enable it:

1) On your keyboard, press Windows logo key + R at the same time to invoke the Run box, and type services.msc, then press Enter.

2) Right click Wlan AutoConfig (if you are using Windows XP, right click Wireless Configuration), and click Properties.

3) Select Automatic in Startup type, then click Apply, and click OK

4) Restart your PC and reconnect to your WiFi network to see if your WiFi shows up.

Method 3: Update WiFi network driver

Wireless network driver allows your operating system to communicate with your wireless and network adapters. If your wireless network is not showing up on laptop, it is probably due to the missing, outdated, or corrupt drivers.

There are two ways to update drivers:manuallyandautomatically.

Manually update driver– You can manually update the network driver bysearching the correct driverthat is matched with yourWindowsOSon themanufacturer’s website, andinstallit in your computer. This requires the time and computer skills.

Automatically update driver– If you don’t have time or patience to manually update drivers, you can do that automatically with Driver Easy.

Driver Easy will detect the drivers condition in your computer, and install the correct drivers for your PC. More importantly, with Driver Easy, you don’t need to struggle figuring out the Operating System, and you don’t need to worry about making mistakes while processing. That will tremendously save your time and patience.

You can update your drivers automatically with either the FREE or Pro version of Driver Easy. It only takes 2 simple clicks with the Pro version (and you will get full support and a 30-day money back guarantee).

Important: If the Windows can’t access to the Internet, you can download Driver Easy from another computer. Then install it in this computer. Due to theOffline Scan feature provided by Driver Easy, you can download and install network driver even with no Internet.

1) Download and install Driver Easy (at first connect your computer to the Internet via Ethernet cable).

2) Run Driver Easy and click Scan Now. Then Driver Easy will scan your computer and detect any problem drivers

3) Click Update button next to the driver name to download the correct driver (you can do that with the FREE version), then install it in your computer.

Or click Update All to automatically download and install the correct version of all the problem drivers (you can do that with Pro version, and you will be prompted to upgrade when you click Update All).

4) After updating the drivers, restart your computer, then connect to the WiFi network again, and see if your problem solves.

Method 4: Restart your modem and WiFi router

If the problem occurs to your own WiFi network at home, you can also check the WiFi itself to see if it’s your WiFi issue, including the router issue, SSID broadcast and device interference mentioned below.

This problem can be probably caused by the Internet Service Provider (ISP) issue. Restarting your modem and wireless router can help you reconnect to your ISP. Note: anyone who is connecting to the network will be disconnected temporarily while you are doing this.

1) Unplug your wireless router and modem from power source (remove the battery if your modem has a battery backup).

Settings

2) Wait for at least 30 seconds.

3) Plug your wireless router and modem back into power source again (put the battery back to the modem).

4) On your PC, reconnect to your WiFi network, then see if it shows up.

What is WiFi Network Frequency

Tips: If it is the first time to connect to the WiFi, you will need to pay attention to the WiFi network frequency. You can’t connect if your computer uses mismatched frequency with your router’s.

Usually WiFi network frequency has 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz. Luckily many routers are dual-band model now, so it both supports 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz band. To check your WiFi network frequency, you can go to the router manufacturer’s website. While you can also check your Windows WiFi network frequency: type netsh wlan show drivers in the Command Prompt and press Enter, then it will show you the supported protocols.

Generally speaking, 802.11a/ac uses the 5 GHz band, 802.11b/g uses the 2.4 GHz band, and 802.11n uses either the 2.4 GHz or 5 GHz band. if they don’t match or include the frequencies of your router, the WiFi network won’t show up on your computer.

Method 5: Enable SSID broadcast for your WiFi

Service Set Identifier (SSID) broadcast is what makes your WiFi network visible to your network adapter. Once you disable SSID broadcast, your WiFi network won’t show up in the list.

Tips: Many people disable SSID broadcast for security concerns. By doing this, they can hide the WiFi network, so the network name won’t be seen by others. But the first time to connect to the WiFi network, you’ll have to configure the profile settings manually, including the network name and security mode. After making the initial connection, devices can remember these settings and will not need to be specially configured again.

You can try the instructions below to enable your SSID broadcast. The specific interface may vary from different computers. Here we take TP-link WiFi router as an example:

1) Go and see the IP address, username and password on your wireless router.

2) Open your browser on PC or mobile phone (connect to the Internet via Ethernet cable on your PC or use mobile phone that has internet connection).

3) Type the IP address in your browser, and press Enter.

4) Type your User name and Password, then click Login.

5) Go to Wireless > Wireless Settings. Check the box next to Enable SSID broadcast, and click Save.

7) Restart your PC and reconnect to your WiFi network.

Method 6: Check the device interference

The WiFi signals can be interfered by many household devices, such as your cordless phone, microwave oven, Bluetooth speaker, etc. because they use the same 2.4 GHz or 5 GHz frequencies. Therefore, you can check these devices to see if it’s where the problem lies in.

1) Turn off those devices, and unplug the power source

2) On your PC, try to connect your WiFi again, and see if it shows up.

3) If the problem solves, it seems to result from the devices interference. Then move your modem and wireless router to another place, so they are not in the same light with the household devices.

In addition to the way mentioned above, you can also buy a 5 GHz router or dual band router, because many household devices use the frequency of 2.4GHz. So using a router of 5 GHz can avoid most interference.

Method 7: Switch to ChromeOS

Windows is a very old technology. Sure, Windows 10 is relatively new, but it’s still just the latest iteration of a decades-old operating system, designed for a bygone era (pre-internet).

Now that we have the internet, fast connection speeds, free cloud storage, and endless web apps (like Gmail, Google Docs, Slack, Facebook, Dropbox and Spotify), the entire Windows way of doing things – with locally installed programs and local file storage – is totally outdated.

Why is that a problem? Because when you’re constantly installing uncontrolled third-party programs, you’re constantly opening the door to viruses and other malware. (And Windows’ insecure permission system compounds this problem.)

Windows 10 Wifi Settings Not Showing Up

Plus the way Windows manages installed software and hardware has always been a problem. If your computer shuts down unexpectedly, or a program installs, uninstalls or updates incorrectly, you can get ‘registry’ corruptions. That’s why Windows PCs always slow down and become unstable over time.

Also because everything’s installed and saved locally, it doesn’t take long before you run out of disk space, and your disk gets fragmented, which makes everything even slower and more unstable.

For most people, the simplest way to solve Windows problems is to ditch Windows altogether, and switch to a faster, more reliable, more secure, easier to use and cheaper operating system…

ChromeOS feels much like Windows, but instead of installing heaps of programs to email, chat, browse the internet, write documents, do school presentations, create spreadsheets, and whatever else you normally do on a computer, you use web apps. You don’t need to install anything at all.

That means you don’t have virus and malware problems, and your computer doesn’t slow down over time, or become unstable.

And that’s just the start of the benefits…

To learn more about the benefits of ChromeOS, and to see comparison videos and demos, visit GoChromeOS.com.

That’s all about it. If it helps, share with us which method that helps. If the WiFi network still doesn’t show up in the network list, and you are not sure how to deal with it, please feel free to leave us a comment below and we will see what more we can do to help.

Summary :

If your WiFi icon is missing, what can you do? In this post, we will show you how to solve the issue WiFi icon missing from Taskbar Windows 10. In addition, you can also visit MiniTool to find more Windows tips and solutions.

The WiFi icon feature enables your computer to connect the network. However, some computer users complain that the WiFi icon may disappear from the Taskbar and they seek help online.

In this post, we will show you how to solve the problem of WiFi icon missing. If your WiFi icon has disappeared from the Taskbar, try these solutions.

If you are looking for solutions to WiFi network not showing up, this post is what you need because it introduces reliable solutions.

Solved – WiFi Icon Missing from Taskbar Windows 10/8/7

In this part, the solutions to solve the problem of WiFi icon missing Windows 10 will be introduced one by one.

Solution 1. Restore WiFi Icon from Shown Hidden Area

Sometimes, your WiFi icon may be dragged to the Shown hidden Area. So, before proceeding to the solutions, you can check your Shown Hidden Area and check whether it is here. So, just click the up-arrow in the Taskbar to continue. If it is here, drag it to the Taskbar.

If it is not here, try the following solutions.

What is a network security key? How to find network security key on your computer? This post shows you the detailed guides.

Solution 2. Enable WiFi Icon from Settings

The second solution to solve the issue of WiFi icon missing Windows 10 is to enable WiFi icon from Settings.

Now, here is the tutorial.

Step 1: Press Windows key and I key together to open Settings. Then choose Personalization to continue.

Step 2: In the pop-up window, choose Taskbar in the left panel to continue.

Step 3: Then scroll down to choose Turn system icons on or off to continue.

Step 4: Make sure the Network or Wireless icon is On.

Step 5: Returning to the last page, choose Select which icons appear on the taskbar to continue.

Step 6: Make sure the Network or Wireless is enabled.

After that, reboot your computer and check whether the issue of Windows 10 WiFi icon missing is solved.

If you meet Windows 10 WiFi problems when you are using your computer, then you should read this article to find efficient solutions to resolve them.

Solution 3. Restart File Explorer

The third solution to fix the issue of WiFi icon missing from Taskbar is to restart the File Explorer.

Now, here is the tutorial.

Step 1: Right-click on the Taskbar and choose Task Manager to continue.

Step 2: On the pop-up window, scroll down to find Windows Explorer and choose End task from the context menu to continue.

Step 3: After that, you can run File Explorer again and check whether the issue of WiFi icon missing is solved.

Solution 4. Restart Network Services

The fourth solution to fix the issue of WiFi icon missing Windows 10 is to restart the Network services.

Now, here is the tutorial.

Step 1: Press Windows key and R key together to open Run dialog, then type services.msc in the box and click OK to continue.

Step 2: In the Services window, find the following services and make sure that they are started. If not, right-click the service and choose Start to continue.

Network not showing up windows 10

Remote procedure call

Wifi

Windows 10 Wifi Hotspot

Network Connections

Plug and Play

Remote Access Connection Manager

Telephony

When all steps are finished, reboot your computer and check whether the issue of WiFi icon missing from Taskbar Windows 10 is solved.

Solution 5. Enable Network Icon in Group Policy Editor

In order to solve the issue of WiFi icon missing, you can enable the Network icon in the Group Policy Editor.

Now, here is the tutorial.

Step 1: Press Windows key and R key together to open Run dialog, then type gpedit.msc in the box and click OK to continue.

Step 2: In the Group Policy Editor window, navigate to the following path:

User Configuration > Administrative Templates > Start Menu and Taskbar

Step 3: Then select Remove the networking icon on the right panel and double-click it.

Step 4: In the pop-up window, choose Disabled to continue. Then click Apply and OK to confirm the changes.

When all steps are finished, reboot your computer and check whether the issue of Windows 10 WiFi icon missing is solved.

Solution 6. Registry Fix

In order to solve the issue of WiFi icon missing Windows 10, you can try fixing Registry.

Now, here is the tutorial.

Step 1: Press Windows key and R key together to open Run dialog, then type regedit in the box and click OK to continue.

Step 2: In the Registry Editor window, navigate to the following folder.

Windows 10 Wifi Settings Not Showing Up Windows 10

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetControlNetwork

Step 3: Then locate the Config key and choose Delete from the context menu to continue.

After that, reboot your computer and check whether the issue of WiFi icon missing Windows 10 is solved.

Tip: If you can’t find the Config key, just try other methods.

Solution 7. Run Network Adapter Troubleshooter

Now, we will show you another way to fix the issue of WiFi icon missing. In this way, you can try running Network Adapter Troubleshooter.

Here is the tutorial.

Step 1: Press Windows key and R key together to open Run dialog, then choose Update & Security to continue.

Step 2: In the pop-up window, choose Troubleshoot to continue.

Step 3: Then choose Run the troubleshooter under the Internet Connections to continue.

Then you can wait for the process to be finished. When it is finished, reboot your computer and check whether the issue of WiFi icon missing from Taskbar Windows 10 is solved.

If all the above solutions are not effective, you may need to reinstall the operating system. But please remember that please back up all your important files before proceeding.

How to find WiFi password on Windows 10? Check the 4 steps for how to view saved current WiFi password on your Windows 10 computer.

Final Words

To sum up, this post has introduced several ways to solve the issue of Windows 10 WiFi icon missing. If you have encountered the same issue, try these solutions.