Network and Internet Hide or Show Available Wi-Fi Networks in Windows 11

This tutorial will show you how to hide or show specific or all available Wi-Fi networks for all users in Windows 10 and Windows 11.

Wi-Fi is a wireless local area network (WLAN) technology and standard that uses high-frequency radio waves to provide wireless Internet and network connections to your Windows device.

If your PC has a Wi-Fi adapter, you will see a list of all available Wi-Fi networks by name (SSID) within range of your area by default to select to connect to.

If you don't want to always see all available Wi-Fi networks on your PC, you can use a filter to hide (block) or show (allow) Wi-Fi networks you want on the available networks list.

You can add specific Wi-Fi network(s) to the allow filter list to have them always show on your available Wi-Fi networks list.

You can add specific Wi-Fi network(s) to the block filter list to always hide and remove them from your available Wi-Fi networks list.

You can deny all Wi-Fi networks not on the allow filter list to be hidden and removed from your available Wi-Fi networks list. This can be handy to only show the allowed Wi-Fi networks you want on your available networks list.

You can remove all Wi-Fi networks not on the block filter list from deny all to show on your available Wi-Fi networks list.




EXAMPLE: Available Wi-Fi networks list in Settings and Quick Settings







1 Open Windows Terminal, and select either Windows PowerShell or Command Prompt.

2 Copy and paste the command below you want to use into Windows Terminal, and press Enter. (see screenshot below)

Deny all Wi-Fi networks not on Allow list will show on the Block list as SSID: "", Type: Infrastructure for all Wi-Fi networks instead of individually with specific SSID names like when manually added to the block filter list in Option Three.

You must be signed in as an administrator to use this option.

Wi-Fi networks added to the allow filter list will always show on the available networks list.

Wi-Fi networks on the allow filter list cannot be added to the block filter list unless removed from the allow filter list first.

1 Open Windows Terminal (Admin), and select either Windows PowerShell or Command Prompt.

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

Substitute Wi-Fi network name in the command above with the actual Wi-Fi network name (SSID) you want to add or remove.

For example:
netsh wlan add filter permission=allow ssid="Brink-Router2" networktype=infrastructure

netsh wlan delete filter permission=allow ssid="Brink-Router2" networktype=infrastructure

You must be signed in as an administrator to use this option.

Wi-Fi networks added to the block filter list will be hidden and removed from the available networks list unless set to show in Option Six.

Wi-Fi networks on the allow filter list cannot be added to the block filter list unless removed from the allow filter list first.

1 Open Windows Terminal (Admin), and select either Windows PowerShell or Command Prompt.

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

Substitute Wi-Fi network name in the command above with the actual Wi-Fi network name (SSID) you want to add or remove.

For example:
netsh wlan add filter permission=block ssid="Brink-Router" networktype=infrastructure

netsh wlan delete filter permission=block ssid="Brink-Router" networktype=infrastructure

You must be signed in as an administrator to use this option.

Denying all Wi-Fi networks not on the allow filter list will block them to hide and remove them from the available networks list unless set to show in Option Six.

1 Open Windows Terminal (Admin), and select either Windows PowerShell or Command Prompt.

2 Copy and paste the command below into Windows Terminal, and press Enter. (see screenshot below)

netsh wlan add filter permission=denyall networktype=infrastructure

You must be signed in as an administrator to use this option.

Removing all denied Wi-Fi networks not on the block filter list will show them on your available Wi-Fi networks list.

1 Open Windows Terminal (Admin), and select either Windows PowerShell or Command Prompt.

2 Copy and paste the command below into Windows Terminal, and press Enter. (see screenshot below)

netsh wlan delete filter permission=denyall networktype=infrastructure

This option will allow you to toggle hide or show all Wi-Fi networks on the block filter list on demand without having to remove them from the block filter list.

1 Open Windows Terminal, and select either Windows PowerShell or Command Prompt.

2 Copy and paste the command below you want to use into Windows Terminal, and press Enter. (see screenshot below)







That's it,
Shawn Brink