How to Change WiFi Priority in Windows 11

Sadique Hassan•Updated Feb 5, 2022

In this guide, we will show you the steps to change the WiFi priority in Windows 11. I have two different WiFi networks in my home and for some reason, the OS always preferred the one farther from me. And I guess I’m not the only one facing this issue. So one way to deal with this problem is to forget the other connection (farther one) and only have the nearest one saved on my PC. While this is indeed an option, it isn’t the most viable one, as I would have to re-enter the password every time that secondary WiFi is required.

So what else could be done? Well, we could tweak the metric of each of these connections and assign the top priority to the preferred WiFi. For the unaware, each network adapter on our PC has been assigned a numerical value by the system. These value mainly depends on three parameters, namely speed, the number of hops it takes to reach that specific destination, and the Delay time. Taking these three parameters into consideration, all your adapters are assigned a metric.

So the one with the lowest is considered the best (similar to the ranking system). And the OS molds its decision based on this metric itself. So in my case, the WiFi which was farther from my PC had a lower metric value and hence the system always tried connecting to it first. Fortunately, the system also gives us an option to manually tweak this metric. And this is what I did to rectify this problem. I assigned a higher metric value to the farther network and a lower value to the nearer one.

S0 before connecting to the network, the OS would first check the metric value, since the preferred one will now have a lower value, it will always give it the first preference. As a result, I could still have both the WiFi saved on my PC and at the same time, also connect to the network one of my choice. If you are also planning to do something along the same lines, then this guide shall come in handy. In this tutorial, we will show you various methods to change the WiFi priority in Windows 11.

How to Change WiFi Priority in Windows 11

To begin with, head over to the Start menu, search Command Prompt and launch it as an administrator.
Then execute the below command to bring a list of all the saved networks on your PC. Also note done the desired network name to which you want to give the higher privilege (in my case, it’s FTTH-2.4G).
```
netsh wlan show profiles
```
After that, copy-paste the following command to get the name of your wireless adapter (in my case, it’s Wi-Fi):
```
netsh wlan show interfaces
```
Now execute the below command in the CMD window. Make sure to change WiFiName, AdapterName, and Value as explained below:
```
netsh wlan set profileorder name="WiFiName" interface="AdapterName" priority=Value
```
Replace WiFiName with the desired WiFi name that you had chosen from the first command’s output (for me, it was FTTH-2.4G).
Likewise, replace AdapterName with the output that you got after executing the second command (in my case, it was Wi-Fi).
Then replace the Value with the metric value that you wish to assign to this WiFi. In my case, I wish to make it the go-to network, hence I will be giving it the top priority, which is 1.
So putting all these values, the above command in my case will transform to:
```
netsh wlan set profileorder name="FTTH-2.4G" interface="Wi-Fi" priority=1
```

With this, your desired network has now been given the top-most priority. You may now assign/change the priority of other WiFi networks on your Windows 11 PC as well, just make sure that two networks don’t end up having the same priority.

Is there any other way to do this?

If you don’t prefer to deal it the CMD window, then there are a couple of other methods to carry out this task, though the mileage might vary. The closest that we could get to emulate the Command Prompt method’s efficiency is by enabling the “Connect automatically when in range” option for the preferred WiFi and then disabling this feature for all the other WiFis.

So when you are nearby 3-4 saved WiFi networks, then your PC will only connect to the preferred one, since this is the only one that has the Connect automatically feature enabled. On that note, we will show you how to do this task from the Settings menu. For a shorter approach, you could also try out the Wlan10 v1.1.2 app from GitHub.

Use the Windows+X shortcut keys to open the Settings menu.
Then select Network and Internet from the left menu bar.
After that, go to WiFi and select Managed Known Networks.
Now click on your WiFi and checkmark “Connect automatically when in range”.
Then go back to Managed Known Networks and disable the Connect automatically feature for all the other WiFi. That’s it.

So these were the instructions to change the WiFi priority in Windows 11. We have listed three different methods to carry out the said task- via CMD, Settings, and third-party app. If you have any queries concerning the aforementioned steps, do let us know in the comments. We will get back to you with a solution at the earliest.

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