Connect to a Network dialog has empty 'Show' dropdown
I have a Dell XPSM1530 laptop with Vista Business. Recently my 'Connect to a Network' dialog quit working correctly. It used to show wireless networks, etc. and let me connect to them. The 'Show' drop-down had several options - All, Wireless, etc. Now, it says no networks are available, and there are _no_ options in the 'Show' menu. The 'Show' menu is empty, and if I click to select something, there are no options. I know that wireless networks are available, because I can 'see' the SSIDs using the Dell Wireless Utility. Also, Vista still connects automatically to Wifi networks I previously set up- home and work, but will not allow me to discover and add new ones, such as at a coffee shop. I can manually add new ones if I know the SSID, but cannot connect to them. I have done the following to try to fix this:-Made sure WLAN AutoConfig is running. It had stopped, but I started it, and it has continued to run with no errors-Run netsh wlan enable=yes. wlan is enabled and running.-Created another admin user and verified that user has the same issue-Uninstalled several programs I thought could be related (WireShark/WinPCap, Blackberry emulators, VMWare Player)I really don't want to have to reinstall everything. Any advice on this? -dr
December 24th, 2008 7:01pm

Hi, From your post, I assume that you found there is nothing shown in the Connect to a Network window. You tried connecting to the WLAN manually, it still failed. At this time, please try the following suggestions: 1. Scan your system to make sure that the system is virus free. Temporarily disable your anti-virus software to see if this problem is gone. 2. Check the Wireless NIC: 1) Remove and reinstall the Wireless NIC in the Device Manager. If there is an update for the Wireless NICs driver on the DELLs site, please also apply it. 2) Check the network device properties in the Control Panel-Network connections. 3) Since you found the Wireless LANs SSIDs in Dell Wireless Utility, I want to know if you can disable or remove this utility to see if it works in the Connect to a Network of Windows Vista. (I know some Wireless NIC utility cannot share the management with Windows. This means, if you use this kind of program, it will take the Wireless NIC management rule and the Windows network management function cannot get the information about Wireless NIC status.) 3. Check the Wired Network connection: 1) Check if the computer can connect to a wired network with the network cable. 2) If it cannot be connected, please boot the system to Safe Mode with Networking, and see if the wired connection works. If the issue persists, please also help collecting the following information for further research: 1. Please capture a screenshot for the empty Connect to a Network window: 1) Press the Print Screen key (PrtScn) on your keyboard. 2) Click the "Start" menu, type "mspaint" in the Search Bar and Press Enter. 3) In the Paint program, click the "Edit" menu, click "Paste", click the "File" menu, and click "Save". 4) The "Save As" dialogue box will appear. Type a file name in the "File name:" box, for example: "screenshot". 5) Make sure "JPEG (*.JPG;*.JPEG;*.JPE;*.JFIF)" is selected in the "Save as type" box, click Desktop on the left pane and then click "Save". Please use Windows Live SkyDrive (http://www.skydrive.live.com/) to upload the file and then give me the download address to access it. 2. Please also check the event log to see if there are some related error messages. Hope this helps. Thanks. Nicholas Li - MSFT
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December 26th, 2008 1:19pm

Nicholas,Thanks for the info. I've tried everything you mention:-Run virus scan and confirmed no virus (McAfee)-Temporarily disabled virus scan-Removed Dell utiltiy-Checked for driver updates-Confirmed machine can connect with wired networkThe "Connect to a Network" dialog still has the same behavior. I took screenshots and posted to skydrive:This one shows the issue. Note that the 'Show' dialog is empty. This is the case even if I click on the drop down. CropperCapture[2].jpgThis one shows the Dell Wireless Utility (before uninstall). Note that it shows SSIDs of networks in the area. Also, this utility does not allow users to connect to wireless networks- it is just for diagnostics and doesn't have any 'connect' options. I did uninstall it, but this did not change the behavior.CropperCapture[4].jpg
December 29th, 2008 9:10pm

Still no fix for this, but as an update, I have done the following in addition to the steps above:-Uninstalled\Reinstalled the wireless network card in Device Manager-Booted in 'safe mode with Networking' - the dialog has the same symptomThis to me seems like it's an issue with whatever populates the 'Show' dropdown- possibly a corrupt registry key? The 'Show' dropdown typically lists 'All' by default, but their are no options. I did snoop in the registry and find where (I think) 'connect.dll' is responsible for this dialog. The file date on this is 11/28, which is about when this issue began.
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December 30th, 2008 9:30pm

Hi, Thank you for your update. This issue may be caused by the factor that some settings on the current account are corrupted. And I would like to suggest creating a new account which has administrator permissions to check the issue. Please let us know the results. Thanks. Nicholas Li - MSFT
December 31st, 2008 4:07am

Thanks again for your help. I created a new Admin user named "AnotherAdmin' and it also has the same symptom.
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December 31st, 2008 6:19pm

Hi, Thank you for your response. Could you please tell me which changes have been made on Windows Vista recently before the issue occurred? If it is possible, we can try to use the System Restore to restore the system back to the previous status when the issue didnt occur. (Note: Performing a system restore may cause the loss of the current system settings; therefore, before doing this, please make sure that the system restore point is not too old and set a restore point for the current status.) I suspect the system may be corrupted and please try to repair Windows Vista with your installation CD to see if it helps. (Note: please perform a full system backup before this.) Hope this helps. Thanks.Nicholas Li - MSFT
January 2nd, 2009 2:24pm

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