Windows 11 devices use network adapter priority to determine the network adapter used to establish network and Internet connections. If a device has multiple network adapters, such as multiple network cards, VPNS, virtual machines, or one network card and one Wi-Fi module, it may not be immediately determined that it will be used to connect to the network or the Internet.

The good news is that you can manually set the priority of network adapters; this can be useful in some situations, including ensuring that a particular adapter is always prioritized, or troubleshooting connection issues.

See the guide on changing the priority of Windows 10 network adapters here.

The first thing you might want to do is to check the current priority of all network adapters.

This command returns all network adapters and their interface index numbers and other information, such as connection status.

The index number shown in the first column is unique for each network adapter. The InterfaceMetric value defines the priority. Lower InterfaceMetric numbers take precedence over larger numbers.

Tip: This command supports multiple parameters to customize the query. Some interesting options include:

All you need to do now is to set the values ​​as required.

The basic command is Set-NetIPInterface -InterfaceIndex "XX" -InterfaceMetric "YY".

This will change the priority of the network adapter with an interface index of 5 to 50. Note that there is no confirmation message.

Tip: This command is very powerful, because it supports changing the parameters of certain network adapter specific properties, such as adding -Dhcp Disabled to disable DHCP for the specified adapter.

When finished, run the Get command again to make sure that the changed settings are correct.

PowerShell provides a quick and easy option to change the priority of a network adapter. You can also use the network connection control panel applet to modify the priority.

You can use the network connection control panel applet to change the priority of the network adapter. The overview it provides is not as good as the PowerShell options, but some users may prefer the graphical user interface to the command line options.

You may still want to run a PowerShell command that lists all network adapters and their priority, because you won't get an overview in the network connection applet.

Step 1: Open the network connection control panel applet

Choose Start. Enter ncpa.cpl and run the command; this will open the network connection control panel applet. Tip: Check out our complete list of commands to open the Control Panel applet on Windows.

Step 2: Open the properties of the network adapter.

Right-click the network adapter whose priority you want to change, and select Properties from the context menu that opens.

Step 3: Open the properties of the IPv4 or IPv6 protocol

Find Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4) or Internet Protocol Version 6 (TCP/IPv6) and select the Properties button. If you want to change the priority of both, repeat the process several times.

Step 4: Open the advanced properties of the protocol.

Select the Advanced button on the next screen that opens.

Step 5: Change the priority of the adapter

The interface metric value defines the priority of the adapter. Change it to the desired priority and select OK to complete the process.

There are too many articles about Windows 11...

Thank you Martin! This is very useful information, very helpful. As for "Too many articles about Windows 11...", most of what you describe applies to Windows 8.1 and 10. For example, I don't know what the "automatic indicator" switch and the "interface indicator" value do. Now that I know, I can use this knowledge to troubleshoot multiple network connections.

Thank you for this article. Only his situation is on my home server. Three (3) network interfaces. The first adapter handles cifs and ftp traffic, the second adapter handles dns services for all machines on the network, and the third adapter handles smtp, imap, and http email traffic.

Does this not work in Win10? If so, why is the article named "...Win11"?

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Ghacks is a technology news blog founded by Martin Brinkmann in 2005. Since then, it has become one of the most popular technology news sites on the Internet, with regular contributions from five authors and freelance writers.