Obviously folks are well aware of the issue in Windows 8/8.1 of not being able to forget/re-prioritize wireless networks (except via CMD prompt which doesn't always work). Can a representative from Microsoft answer whether this is something that is being addressed/fixed in a future update? Will we have GUI access again (like ever other modern operating system, including mobile ones, except for Windows 8/8.1)?

Hi,

Sorry but Im not sure the exact time or whether this option can come back, to manage wireless network, you can also access via the "Charms" bar, for your convenience, Id like to share the following two links with you:

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/windows/en-US/ac80d8ec-21ad-4d44-9a0c-c8777f861db7/windows-8-manage-wireless-networks?forum=w8itpronetworking

Manage wireless network profiles

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-IN/windows-8/manage-wireless-network-profiles

Regards,

Yolanda

I'm an engineer on the Windows Networking team.  We have definitely heard your frustration, and we're thinking about ways to make this scenario work better for our customers.  We want you to be delighted with Windows.  Unfortunately, I can't make promises or give specific details on our future plans.

• Marked as answer by Yolanda ZhuMicrosoft contingent staff, Moderator Monday, January 06, 2014 11:07 AM

@v-yozhu and @Jeffrey Tippet [MSFT]

Please convey the following message to someone within Microsoft that has decision rights:

What all Windows users and administrators on every single forum on the internet are requesting for Windows 8.1 is an immediate integrated GUI solution for managing wireless networks and profiles that does not rely on any CLI commands.

The reason for this request is very simple: It is not acceptable to expect the average user to even know what a CLI is. On the other hand, administrators and service desk support personnel shouldn't be spending their time on helping average users out of simple tasks like managing their wireless networks and profiles.

Thank you,

Carlos

I see Carlos has been duly ignored. Support personnel shouldn't be messing around with silly things like that!

Actually, in response to customer requests like this, we made two additions to Windows 8.1:

• You can now right-click on a wireless network and select "Forget this network" to delete the wireless profile from the system.
• In PC Settings > Network > Connections, you can click the new link Manage known networks.  This takes you to a page that shows all saved network profiles. You can delete networks from there too.

To get these features, install the Windows 8.1 Update.  Since most computers are configured to download updates automatically, there's a good chance you already have this update installed.

I hope you'll find that these improvements address some of the concerns outlined in this forum thread. We honestly do try to make our customers happy.

Ok, so I have a wireless network here that requires me to do a little bit of configuring as it uses WPA2-Enterprise with RADIUS. ZeroConf is not doing it properly so Windows 8.1 won't connect.

I'm messing around with Windows WLAN settings for more than an hour right now where this little GUI we used to have, would have solved my problem within 2 minutes. 

With this GUI missing, how am I supposed to do a minor change to a profile? Using CLI? You must be joking. I can't honestly think of any genuine reason to remove this GUI from the OS and force a user to mess around with XML files and CLI. Whoever thought that up should get coffee for the whole department for at least a year. 

PLEASE bring Wireless Profile Management in a proper GUI BACK! 

I'm in the same boat, seriously this is beyond stupid. 

It is amazing that not only did they take the GUI away but the CLI version doesn't even have the same capabilities.

Say I need to edit a wireless profile and change what server and certificate need to be used, oh guess what I can't do that any longer. Or I need to tweak how our authentication is configured, yup can't do it now...

This is so bad that my plan to deploy Windows 10 is now on permanent hold unless this is fixed.