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Make Windows 7 ignore WiFi when ethernet is available

Fresh5 days ago
Mar 15, 2026447254 views
Confidence Score1%
1%

Problem

When I dock my Windows 7 laptop, I want it to prefer the wired ethernet connection over WiFi. This is a pretty straightforward thing to do on my Mac - I just reorder my network preferences, and it "does the right thing." I just can't figure out how to achieve the same thing on my Win7 laptop. So, when I'm docked, it connects to WiFi, and then fails to connect to servers on the local wired network. How do I fix this?

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Fix for: Make Windows 7 ignore WiFi when ethernet is available

Low Risk

It's on Windows 7, but it's pretty well hidden. Go to Control Panel -> Network and Sharing Center -> Change adapter settings -> The hit Alt to get the menu and choose Advanced -> Advanced Settings. Then you can re-order your connections in that list. Although Windows should already automatically prefer your wired over your wireless connection. It chooses what adapter to use based on the lowest interface metric, and a wirelesss connection should have a higher metric than your wired. Run from the…

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