Disable admin credentials for wireless adapter

Question

I am trying to allow our users the ability to enable or disable their computers wireless adapters without needing admin credentials. is this possible through GPO or something like that or is it something that is built into windows? our users are on windows 7 enterprise 64bit. thank you for your help.

Answer 1

That will not be possible.  The reason is that the network hardware (the actual network card) is shared a shared resource (all users, programs, processes all share the same one).  It will always require admin rights to make a change that impacts anyone other than yourself, and this qualifies as that.  It takes admin rights to make a global system change.

Also note that this is a virus fighting measure also.  Since any process that takes global admin control could then watch all the network data, that program could do very malicious things like log your data, block it, or redirect it to other places. It could spoof your certificate and prevent your antivirus, updates, or even your firewall from working.

For all of these and many more reasons, it requires an administrator to make the global change to your network card configuration. That's why many laptops have a switch on the side to turn it on and off.

Answer 2

Couldn't you just have them switch their WiFi on and off [using their dedicated switch or the special function key that's been set up by the PC maker such as F2 on Dells]?  That does not need any Admin permission and it has the same effect.

There is a technical difference between enabling & disabling the card itself and switching wifi on & off but the end result of both actions can be that wifi transmission goes on or off.

Answer 3

Thank you that is what i needed.

Answer 4

Thank you for replying. i think i miscommunicated my question though. i would like to make it so that anyone within my company domain can enable/disable their network adapter without having to use admin credentials. do you know if that is possible?

Answer 5

See these forum threads

how do i turn on my wifi adapter on using cmd?

Enable/Disable Network interface via command line