Are you having problems with your Wi-Fi on Windows 10? Is your Windows 10 PC unable to connect to Wi-Fi networks? In this guide, we will see how to fix common Wi-Fi issues by reinstalling the Wi-Fi driver.
On your Windows 10 PC, you might encounter issues while connecting to a Wi-Fi network or Windows 10 might intermittently disconnect from the connected Wi-Fi network. Your PC might not detect available Wi-Fi networks or fail to connect to a wireless network. At times, the Wi-Fi adapter might refuse to turn on or off.
Most of the Wi-Fi related issues on your PC can be fixed by reinstalling the Wi-Fi driver on your PC. In fact, it’s the ultimate solution out there to fix Wi-Fi issues. Reinstalling the wireless driver includes downloading a fresh copy of the driver, uninstalling the current driver from your PC, and then installing the fresh copy of the driver.
Complete the given below directions to reinstall the wireless or Wi-Fi driver on your Windows 10 PC.
IMPORTANT: When you reinstall the Wi-Fi driver, Windows will delete all saved Wi-Fi network passwords. That means, after installing the Wi-Fi driver, you will have to enter the password again to connect to a wireless network. If you have forgotten the Wi-Fi password, please refer to our how to view saved Wi-Fi password in Windows 10 guide to back up all Wi-Fi passwords before uninstalling the driver.
Reinstalling the Wi-Fi driver in Windows 10
Step 1: Open Device Manager. To do so, right-click on the Start button and then click Device Manager.
Step 2: In the Device Manager, expand Network Adapters to see all network adapters, including the wireless adapter. The Wi-Fi adapter usually has the term “wireless” in its entry.
Note down the wireless adapter name and number as you will need to download the adapter driver before uninstalling the present driver. Once you uninstall the present wireless driver, your Wi-Fi adapter will stop working, so you cannot download the new driver unless you have an Ethernet connection.
To check the version number of the driver, right-click on the wireless driver entry in Device Manager, click Network adapters, click Properties, click the Driver tab.
Step 3: Visit the wireless adapter’s official website or your PC manufacturer’s website, and download the right Wi-Fi driver. We repeat, make sure that you have downloaded the right wireless adapter driver.
Step 4: Now that you have downloaded the Wi-Fi driver, it’s time to uninstall the current driver. In the Device Manager, right-click on the wireless adapter entry, and click the Uninstall device option.
In the older versions of Windows 10 (build 10240), you will see only Uninstall instead of Uninstall device option.
Step 5: When you see the following confirmation dialog, please select Delete driver software for this device checkbox and then click the Uninstall button to uninstall the driver as well as the device.
Step 6: Once the driver is uninstalled, save your work, and restart your PC once. Please reboot your PC once to avoid driver issues later.
Step 7: Launch the setup of the new driver that you downloaded previously (as mentioned in Step 3), and follow the on-screen directions to install the driver. That’s it!
If asked, perform a reboot to complete the driver installation.
You can now click on the Wi-Fi or wireless icon on the taskbar to see all available wireless networks. If the icon is missing, please refer to our fix to wireless icon missing from Windows 10 taskbar guide.
Also, learn how to delete old drivers in Windows 10.
