Windows Connection Manager disables integrated NIC

Question

A little background, in our environment we disable the Windows Connection Manager service on our workstations and laptop as to not let Windows control the network connections. This works perfectly for 99% of our devices. We have a laptop with a wired ethernet connection that is the exception. This laptop was just updated from Windows 10 1909 which had this service disabled and worked fine to Windows 10 2004. Whenever we disable the Windows Connection Manager service (WCMSVC) the integrated NIC is disabled 2-3 seconds later loosing network connectivity. This device is also connected to a dock with an ethernet port which reacts the same way. We are not connecting both the integrated ethernet port and the dock ethernet port at the same time rather just using them for testing.

The only way we have found to restore network connectivity is to enable this service. Does anyone have any suggestions on why this one device would be reacting this way to the service being disabled vs the other workstations/laptops that have this same service disabled and still maintain network connectivity? Additionally, our GPO by default disables this service which we can enable but if the other devices work without this service this device should as well. Any suggestions?

Thanks,

Chris

Answer 1

Hi,

Thanks for posting in Q&A platform.

I have tested in my lab, if the service Windows Connection Manager was disabled, the network connection was working properly in my device.

As you said, you have found the workaround for this issue. Please understand, from Q&A platform support level, it is hard for us to reproduce the issue and analyze the cause for this issue. If you want to find the root cause, I suggest you contact Premier support team.

For more information about our Premier support, please see:

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoftservices/support.aspx

Best Regards,
Sunny

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Answer 2

Reread the comment. He did NOT find a solution. Now I'm having the same issue. I've disable Windows Connection Manager and now all my nics disabled. I need a solution to have my nics enabled.