Hey, everyone.

The question: Why has a domained Windows 10 Pro laptop started forgetting and not showing a saved, hidden, domain network, and how do I fix this problem so that the saved network entry is visible and will connect automatically?

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Problem

I have a customer here who's PC recently decided to stop remembering the network information for our domain wifi network. No other employees have reported this problem. Here in I'll relay what we've observed and actions taken to rectify it. I am with the IT department here and am 5+ years experienced with running face to face with nonsense MS problems at this company and working with end user Windows troubleshooting for several years before being here (not my first rodeo).

Observed

For reference: This is on Windows 10 professional with presumably the latest updates (not checked)

In windows > taskbar > network icon

left click > choose hidden network >

Type in name in all caps to as I understand it to be case sensitive

type the password correctly

discoverable on network > yes

Before this point, if we went into known wifi networks and forgot the last reference to this network, we'd get a new network hereby referred to as NETWORK. Now if we disconnect from it by toggling to LAN, disabling the wifi device or some other means (possibly), NETWORK is now gone.

If we add it back as done before (not forgetting it), you'll then be on NETWORK 2 and connected with NETWORK below it not connected. This can presumably be repeated ad infintum as I saw with NETWORK 3, NETWORK 2, NETWORK.

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Attempted solutions

We tried forgetting the wifi device drivers in device manager (DM) then refreshing to reinstall. Additionally, I tried forgetting multiple network devices in DM just in case (such as the LAN device) and then refreshing to let windows reinstall them once more. Some restarts were made, but I cannot pin down at what intervals at this point, though restarts have occurred over time while working on this.

We tried the command netsh winsock reset for what use it might do.

Additionally, efforts were made with this below site and their solutions.

https://appuals.com/windows-10-will-not-save-wifi-password/

I even tried adding the NETWORK as I have done successfully many times in the classical Set up a Connection or Network > Manually connect to a wireless network, whereby I fill out the boxes below correctly

for ref

NETWORK

WPA2-Personal

AES

Key *****

check both for start automatically and connect even if not broadcasting

No change. In desperation, I asked this employee, fairly competent on her own, to try the built in windows diagnostic tool (desperate times). She came back with a report that it was not fixed and perinate data regarding the network entries.

Profile: NETWORK
SSID: NETWORK
SSID length: 7
Connection mode: Infra
Security: Yes
Set by group policy:
No Connected even if network is not broadcasting: No
Connectable: Yes

Aha, right!? a big NO there for even if not broadcasting, but I know what I set.

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The question: Why has a domained Windows 10 Pro laptop started forgetting and not showing a saved, hidden, domain network, and how do I fix this problem so that the saved network entry is visible and will connect automatically?

Thank you for reading. I'll be pinning this to my desktop, bookmark bar, and ticket for daily updates.

Hello,

As you can imagine, can be a bit difficult to explain why it happens, as sometimes digging in the background of Windows can be a rabbit hole.

My suggestion to avoid the issue, and as best practice, is to assign this Wireless Network using GPO, so the computers that have it assigned will reload the configuration even if it "dissapeared"

For this:
Go to: Computer Configuration > Policies > Windows Settings > Security Settings > Wireless Network (IEEE 802.11) Policies
Click on “Action” in the menu and then click on “Create A New Wireless Network Policy"
Apply name and description, and select “Use Windows WLAN AutoConfig service for clients” in case you don't want 3rd Party Wireless managers or apps to have control over this.
Then click on Add and Type in the name of the SSID you want configure then select the type of Network Type and to make this a whitelist policy instead of a blacklist policy select Allow from the Permission type.

You can also find more information about the options and checklists here:
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/networking/core-network-guide/cncg/wireless/e-wireless-access-deployment

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I can do that, but rewind a bit to how to execute this

I'd check the ... problem member both have the static ip address of DC listed for DNS and no others such as router or public DNS.

Is that in the ipv4 properties for the network adapter? How do I check it at least on her side since I would not have network level access?

The rogue WINS settings is a bit of a misdirect as this really was a long standing matter with random folks having domain access issues or network drive problems and me wondering into their ipv4 settings to remove a couple of WINS IP addresses for our old domain location and sometimes finding a DNS entry that is a misspelling of our domain address.

Her PC is fairly new so the WINS shouldn't be there, and barring any ghost code, nothing should be spitting out the false DNS anymore. I'd like to check that and your original action all at once to reduce interference with her work flow.

Thank you.

I can do that, but rewind a bit to how to execute this

The files I asked for will reveal this.

--please don't forget to upvote and Accept as answer if the reply is helpful--

Just checking if there's any progress or updates?

--please don't forget to upvote and Accept as answer if the reply is helpful--

generally these are default or empty for our setup aside from the rogue leftovers

This sounds problematic. Please run;

Dcdiag /v /c /d /e /s:%computername% >C:\dcdiag.log
repadmin /showrepl >C:\repl.txt
ipconfig /all > C:\dc1.txt
ipconfig /all > C:\dc2.txt
ipconfig /all > C:\dc3.txt
ipconfig /all > C:\problemworkstation.txt

then put unzipped text files up on OneDrive and share a link.

edited for clarity

I'm aware of how to check a network adapter and default out the DNS and WINS in ipv4, and generally these are default or empty for our setup aside from the rogue leftovers that somehow were pointing a WINS address to our old domain. Is this partly related to your comment?

As for the domain control static IP, I'm fairly certain that has been handled by our networking person. That, I think, is what also keeps our printers from fetching new IP addresses, but I can pass that their way for confirmation.

I'd check the domain controller and problem member both have the static ip address of DC listed for DNS and no others such as router or public DNS.

--please don't forget to upvote and Accept as answer if the reply is helpful--