At my work I have to connect to multiple LAN networks from time to time. Whenever I have to test a network, I use a simple Ethernet cable and use it for making a connection. But every time I connect using this Ethernet cable in my Windows 10 PC, it shows a new network profile. At the time of writing this, the number of such network profiles have gone up to Network 19. This is annoying because all these networks have same configuration and only slightly different IP address.
If you are also annoyed by too many networks in Windows 10, then you can delete all of these network profiles because they are not going to be used anyway.
Here is how you can remove all of the network profiles from Windows 10:
Note: This will remove all wired and wireless network configuration from your PC including the passwords. You should create a System Restore point before proceeding
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- Press Win+X to open power users menu. Select Command Prompt (Admin) from this menu.
- In the command prompt give the following commands:
netsh lan delete profile name=* netsh wlan delete profile name=*
- Press Win+R to open the Run dialog. Type regedit in the Run dialog and press Enter.
- Navigate to the following Registry key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\NetworkList\Profiles
- Profiles are sub-keys named like {F82D5D09-1818-4CD8-A8E9-C0B055F0CA0A}. Right-click on each of the profiles at a time and choose Delete. Delete all the profiles that you do not want to see.
- Restart Windows and now you have all the previous network profiles removed from your PC.
In my experience, Windows 10 recreated new network profile for using with any new networks. In case of connecting to WiFi network, I had to supply the WiFi password all over again. But now my PC is free of all the hundreds of network profiles that were created over past many months. Before this my PC has 19 LAN and 21 WiFi network profiles, and after these steps it has only three network profiles.