I've been having issues since getting my new modem, and I've got additional Network names that I'd like to clean out. Actually, I'd like to clean out ALL network references and start clean (without having to re-install Windows!). Right now my Connections show "HOME 4". This is all ethernet, NOT wireless, and my ethernet adapter shows as "Network 4". I'd like to clean everything. Thanks much for any assistance!
That appears to be for devices in Device Manager ..... not sure it's the same thing ..... ================= No, it is not - it does not show the info that I am looking for.
Come one people, this can't be THAT hard. I tried removing a registry entry that was *supposed* to do it - didn't work - I removed the drivers, rebooted, re-installed, and I STILL get "Network 4", not "Network".
Device Manager >> View >> 'Show hidden devices' Expand Network adapters section Delete grayed-out (or unused) items
<Insert registry editor warning here> Network profiles can be deleted from registry, they live in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\NetworkList\Profiles. HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\NetworkList\Signatures\Unmanaged also holds one or more keys per network profiles. I don't know if cleaning these will reset the counter, but you can try.
After deleting old network adapters, I had to manipulate an additional setting in Registry (I don't know if the GUID varies, but you should find it): Code: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\Network\{4D36E972-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}\Descriptions All network adapters (physical and virtual) are listed, each with a REG_MULTI_SZ value like "1 2 3 4", more or less numbers. Those represent the numbers that are used, for example, having a "1" for an adapter means the next will spawn with "#2" at the end. I had to remove all numbers from my NIC to have it re-detected without any number.
This fixed it for me, thank you very much. I was trying to create a new startup task in Task Scheduler and one of the startup conditions is a network adapter being online. When I looked at how many ghost adapters were in that drop down list I knew I had to get rid of them. Your fix here is the only one that's actually worked. Thanks!
Code: powershell.exe -ExecutionPolicy Unrestricted -command "Remove-Item -Path HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\'Windows NT'\CurrentVersion\NetworkList\Profiles\* -Recurse" powershell.exe -ExecutionPolicy Unrestricted -command "Remove-Item -Path HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\'Windows NT'\CurrentVersion\NetworkList\Signatures\Unmanaged\* -Recurse" net stop nlasvc /y && net start nlasvc Save it as clean-net.cmd and launch at will or schedule it with task scheduler