Network and Internet Enable or Disable Energy Efficient Ethernet (EEE) in Windows 11

This tutorial will show you how to enable or disable Energy-Efficient Ethernet for a network adapter in Windows 11.

Energy Efficient Ethernet (EEE), standardized as IEEE 802.3az, is a set of enhancements to various Ethernet physical-layer variants that reduce power consumption during periods of low data activity without sacrificing network performance. This technology is designed to help lower energy costs in networking equipment by allowing devices to enter a low-power state when not in active use.

Less power consumption means less heat produced by network equipment. This can extend hardware lifespan and reduce cooling requirements in data centers and network closets.

For laptops and mobile devices with Ethernet adapters, EEE can help preserve battery power during network connections.

EEE could cause connection instability or reduced speeds in some situations or with some older network equipment, so you may need to disable EEE if this happens to you.

References:

You must be signed in as an administrator to enable or disable EEE for a network adapter.

1 Open Device Manager (devmgmt.msc).

2 Expand open Network adapters. (see screenshot below step 3)

3 Double click/tap on the Ethernet device (ex: "Intel(R) Ethernet Connection (7) I219-V" or "Marvell AQC111C 5GbE connection") you want to enable or disable EEE for. (see screenshot below)

You can also right click on the Ethernet device instead, and click/tap on Properties.

4 Click/tap on the Advanced tab. (see screenshots below step 7)

5 Select Energy Efficient Ethernet in the Property pane. (see screenshots below step 7)

The exact name of the property may vary depending on the driver. It could also be named EEE, Green Ethernet, or Power Saving Mode.

6 Select On or Off or Enabled or Disabled in the Value drop menu for what you want. (see screenshots below step 7)

7 Click/tap on OK. (see screenshots below)


8 You can now close Device Manager if you like.





1 Open Network Connections, and make note of the network adapter name (ex: "Ethernet") you want to enable or disable EEE for. (see screenshot below)

You can run control netconnections in Win+R to directly open Network Connections.

2 Open Windows Terminal (Admin), and select Windows PowerShell.

3 Type the command below into Windows Terminal (Admin), and press Enter. (see screenshot below step 4)

Substitute Ethernet in the command above with the actual network name from step 1.

4 Under the DisplayName column, make note of the exact property name (ex: "Energy-Efficient Ethernet") used for EEE by this network adapter (ex: "Ethernet"). (see screenshot below)

The exact name of the property may vary depending on the driver. It could also be named EEE, Green Ethernet, or Power Saving Mode.

5 Type the command below you want to use into Windows Terminal (Admin), and press Enter. (see screenshots below)

Substitute Ethernet in the command above with the actual network name from step 1.

Substitute Energy-Efficient Ethernet in the command above with the actual EEE property name from step 4.

6 You can now close Windows Terminal (Admin) if you like.


That's it,
Shawn Brink