If you are carrying a notebook on an airplane flight, then most probably you would be told to switch off the WiFi communications before the flight takes off. In smartphones it is very easy to switch off the WiFi connections, but if you have a Windows 8 notebook, then things are done differently. Some of the notebooks have a WiFi switch on the side which lets you switch the wireless communications on or off. But if your notebook does not have such a flip switch, then it becomes a marathon run through the Amazon forest to find the settings and switch something off.
Windows 8 makes it a little easier to switch off the wireless connections by turning on the Airplane mode for your PC. This mode turns off all types of wireless communications like WiFi, mobile broadband, bluetooth, GPS etc. But since most users only use WiFi and bluetooth only, therefore the Airplane mode affects only these settings for most of us.
You can enable the Airplane mode in Windows 8 and quickly turn off the WiFi and bluetooth using the following steps:
- Press the Windows Logo + I hotkey on your keyboard to display the Settings bar near the right-edge of your computer screen. Click/tap on the Change PC Settings at the bottom of this bar.
- In the screen that shows up, you will see all the PC settings that you can customize. Click/tap on the Wireless section on this screen.
- Click/tap on the on-off flip switch under the Airplane mode to turn on the Airplane mode. You can also enable or disable the WiFi or Bluetooth devices easily by using their respective on-off flip switches.
- When the Airplane mode it enabled, an airplane icon would be shown in the notification area (system tray) of your Windows 8 desktop.
The Airplane mode is a quick and easy way to turn off the wireless communications when you are in a special area like on an airplane flight, inside an hospital or any other sensitive area where the wireless signals from your notebook can interfere with machines and cause problems.