How to Disable Network Adapter (Ethernet) in Windows 11

Quick Tips

• Need a temporary break from the internet? Disabling your ethernet adapter is a quick way to disconnect and focus on offline tasks.
• Disable your ethernet adapter directly from Settings. Head to Network & internet > Advanced network settings, find your ethernet adapter and flip the toggle switch to Off.
• Device Manager lets you disable the ethernet adapter. Search for Device Manager > expand Network adapters > right-click your ethernet adapter, and choose Disable device.

Method 1: Using Settings

Step 1: Press the Windows key on your keyboard, type Settings, and press Open.

Step 2: Click on Network & internet from the sidebar.

Step 3: Scroll down and click on Advanced network settings.

Step 4: In Advanced network settings, under Network adapters, click on Disable for the adapter you want to disable. 

Note: You can disable Ethernet, Wi-Fi, or Bluetooth.

Once done, depending on which adapter you have disabled, the connection will go offline. You can click on Enable to establish the connection again. If you don’t want to do it through the Settings app, you can check out the old way in the next method.

Method 2: Using the Control Panel

Here’s how to disable your Windows 11 Ethernet or Wi-Fi network adapter using the network connection option.

Step 1: Press the Windows key on your keyboard > type View network connections > click Open.

Step 2: In the Network Connection window, right-click on the network adapter you want to disable and select Disable.

This will turn off the selected adapter, and the icon will turn grey. In the future, if you wish to enable the adapter you disabled, right-click on the adapter and select Enable.

Method 3: Using the Device Manager

Step 1: Press the Windows key on your keyboard > type Device Manager > click Open.

Step 2: Double-click the Network adapters to expand the section.

Step 3: Find and right-click the adapter you want to disable and select Disable device.

That’s it. You have successfully disabled the selected network adapter on your Windows 11 PC. You can confirm it by checking if the adapter has turned grey. If you want to do the same slightly untraditional way, move to the next method.

Method 4: Using Command Prompt

Step 1: Press the Windows key on your keyboard > type Command Prompt > click Run as administrator.

Step 2: Type the below command and hit the Enter key.

Netsh interface show interface

Note the Interface Name, which is the network adapter name you wish to disable.

Step 3: To disable the network adapter, type the following command and press Enter.

Note: Replace the Interface Name with the name you noted above.

Netsh interface set interface "Interface Name" disable

The network adapter you chose is disabled by the above command. If you wish to enable it, type the below command and hit Enter.

Netsh interface set interface "Interface Name" enable

Note: Replace the Interface Name with the appropriate name you noted earlier.

There you go. You have successfully disabled and enabled a network adapter on your Windows 11 PC with Command Prompt. If you don’t want to use Command Prompt, you can run it through PowerShell.

Method 5: Using PowerShell

Step 1: Press the Windows key on your keyboard, type Windows PowerShell, and click on Run as Administrator. 

Step 2: Type the below command and hit Enter.

Get-NetAdapter | format-list

Note down the name of the device you want to disable.

Step 3: Type the command below to disable the desired adapter.

Note: Replace the ‘network adapter name’ with the actual network adapter name.

Disable-NetAdapter -Name "network adapter name" -Confirm:$false

There you go. You have successfully disabled the adapter on your Windows 11 PC. If you wish to enable it, type or copy the below command.

Enable-NetAdapter -Name "network adapter name" - Confirm:$false

Note: Replace the network adapter name with the actual network adapter name.

FAQs

Also Read: How to fix the “Windows could not find a driver for your network adapter” error