6 Ways to Fix Airplane Mode Grayed Out on Windows 10 and Windows 11

Quick Tips

• Try pressing the function key on your keyboard that toggles airplane mode on your PC to see if it works.
• Reinstalling the Airplane Mode Switch driver and updating the Network Adapter driver can also help resolve such issues.
• You may have to reset all the network settings if the airplane mode remains grayed out on Windows.

Fix 1: Restart Radio Management Service

Radio Management Service is an essential component that needs to run in the background for airplane mode to work. Ideally, the service should start automatically every time your PC boots. However, if that isn’t happening or if the service has encountered a problem, you can try restarting it.

Step 1: Press the Windows key + R to launch the Run utility. Type services.msc in the Open field and press Enter.

Step 2: In the Services window, locate Radio Management Service. Right-click on it and select Restart. If the service is not running, select Start.

Fix 2: Reinstall the Airplane Mode Switch Driver

Issues with the “Airplane Mode Switch” driver on your PC can also result in such anomalies. If that’s the case, reinstalling the problematic driver should help.

Step 1: Right-click the Start icon and select Device Manager from the list.

Step 2: Double-click on “Human Interface Devices,” right-click on the Airplane Mode Switch entry and select Uninstall device. Then, hit Uninstall to confirm.

Restart your PC after this and Windows will automatically reinstall the missing driver on boot. Following that, you should be able to enable or disable airplane mode.

Fix 3: Disable and Enable Network Adapter

Sometimes issues with the network adapter on your PC can cause the airplane mode to appear grayed out. In such cases, you can try disabling the network adapter and enabling it again to resolve the issue.

Step 1: Open Device Manager and double-click on Network adapters to expand it.

Step 2: Right-click on your wireless network adapter and select Disable device.

Step 3: Right-click on the network adapter again and select Enable device.

Fix 4: Update Network Adapter Driver

If re-enabling the network adapter driver doesn’t help, then it could be the case of drivers being outdated. In that case, you can try updating the network adapter driver on Windows.

Step 1: Click on the search icon on the taskbar, type device manager in the box and press Enter.

Step 2: Expand Network adapters, right-click on your wireless network adapter, and select Update driver.

From there, follow the on-screen instructions to finish updating the driver. Following that, the airplane mode should not appear grayed out.

Fix 5: Tweak Registry Values

If the problem persists, you can modify the “RadioEnable” key via the Registry Editor to enable or disable wireless connectivity on your PC. Here are the steps for the same.

Step 1: Press the Windows key + R to launch the Run command, type in regedit, and press Enter.

Step 2: In the Registry Editor window, paste the following path in the address bar at the top and press Enter. This will take you to the Control key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control

Step 3: Right-click on the Control key and select Find.

Step 4: Type RadioEnable in the box and click on Find Next.

Step 5: After you locate the RadioEnable entry, double-click on it and change its value data to 1 before hitting OK. This will disable the airplane mode. Similarly, setting its value to 0 will enable airplane mode.

Fix 6: Reset Network Settings

If the airplane mode still appears grayed out at this point, resetting network settings on Windows may be your only option. Here’s how you can go about it.

Step 1: Press the Windows key + I to launch the Settings app. In the Network & internet tab, click on Advanced network settings.

Step 2: Under More settings, click on Network reset.

Step 3: Click the Reset now button next to Network reset.