How do I find out more about a wlan profile listed in CMD prompt?

I have a profile listed in netsh wlan show profiles that I think is obsolete. I don't know for sure. How do I trace back to this profile to see what it is linked to?

You may open Device Manager and click on Network Adapters. Under Network Adapters is a list of all the network devices that belong to your computer. You may selectively disable any network device you think you might not need.

I checked there. Most on the list I can figure out, but there is a lot of Wan miniports listed that don't mean anything to me.

Alicia,

I do not know what you mean by, "trace back to this profile to see what it is linked to".
- That netsh command listed networks [network profiles] that you have used.
- They are not particularly linked to anything. They are just networks that you made use of.

Your WiFi profiles are listed in the Registry in Sub-Keys of
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\NetworkList\Profiles
- The relevant entry within each Sub-Key is Description, e.g. FredWiFi, that was listed by netsh.
- You can find multiple entries of Description with different ProfileName entries, e.g. FredWiFi 2, FredWiFi 3, ...
- Description is the key identifying factor however many different times it may appear in different Sub-Keys with different ProfileName entries.

If a network profile is no longer required, you can delete its Sub-Key.
- If you want to be cautious, you can right-click on it first & Export it in .reg format so you can reinstate a mistaken deletion. Consider making a new system image before you start.
- If there are multiple ProfileName entries for the Description reported by netsh, each one needs to be deleted.

Further guidance, using an alternative approach, is given in
Delete Wi-Fi Network Profile - ElevenForumTutorials
Backup and restore Wi-Fi Network Profiles - ElevenForumTutorials


All the best,
Denis

Alicia J said:

I checked there. Most on the list I can figure out, but there is a lot of Wan miniports listed that don't mean anything to me.

Click to expand...

These are basic Miniport drivers that provide communication over various network media.
WAN Miniport (IKEv2)
WAN Miniport (IP)
WAN Miniport (IPv6)
WAN Miniport (L2TP)
WAN Miniport (Network Monitor)
WAN Miniport (PPPOE)
WAN Miniport (PPTP)
WAN Miniport (SSTP)
You can double-click on any Miniport then select the Driver Tab and see that the Driver Provider is Microsoft.
IP and IPv6 is for the Internet datagram.
IKEv2 is for DNS authentication.
L2TP is for VPN networks
Network Monitor suggests network automation
PPPOE is Point-to-Point Over Ethernet
PPTP is for VPN network
SSTP is for SSL/TLS security protocol over Internet

iko22,

Why are you advising the OP to check WiFi adapters when the problem is an unwanted network profile?
Am I missing something in the question that you have not missed?

All the best,
Denis

Try3 said:

iko22,

Why are you advising the OP to check WiFi adapters when the problem is an unwanted network profile?
Am I missing something in the question that you have not missed?

All the best,
Denis

Click to expand...

Post #3 queries the WAN miniports.

Try3 I meant I don't know what device is/was using this profile. Thank you for the links. I did check them out before.​

iko22 Thank you for the explanation of the miniports.​