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This is another one of those annoyances that just gets you angry at the lack of thought of the people at Microsoft that were in charge of this feature. What could have been done in 3 clicks of a mouse and a few seconds in Windows 8, now takes double that amount of clicks and triple the amount of time in Windows 8.1.
Let me explain. In Windows 8, when you wanted to delete or forget a wireless access point profile, you could simply click on the network icon in the tray area, scroll till you got to the desired network, and either hold (if you’re using touch screen) or right-click on it and select “Forget” from the context menu.
Forgetting a Wi-Fi network in Windows 8. (Image: Daniel Petri)
Yes. You must do it from here. Why? God knows. Here are the steps you’ll need to take in order to forget or delete a Windows 8.1 Wi-Fi network profile.
1. Open PC Settings by swiping in from the right edge of the screen, tapping Settings on the bottom. Then, tap “Change PC Settings”.
Selecting ‘Network’ under PC Settings in Windows 8.1. (Image: Daniel Petri)
Selecting ‘Connections’ under Networking settings in Windows 8.1. (Image: Daniel Petri)
Forgetting a known Wi-Fi network profile in Windows 8.1 (Image: Daniel Petri)
Compared to the half-dozen clicks it takes to forget a Wi-Fi profile using the Windows 8.1 GUI, using the command prompt is a breeze.
1. Open Command Prompt with elevated credentials (“Run as Administrator”).
2. To just view a list of the existing access points saved in your profile, type:
netsh wlan show profiles
Using the command prompt to forget Windows 8.1 Wi-Fi Profiles. (Image: Daniel Petri)
netsh wlan delete profile name="profile name"
Replace “profile_name” with the name of the Wi-Fi profile you want to delete/forget.
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