Change the name of your network card in Windows to easily identify it

The big problem with network adapters in Windows is that they have a generic name that says absolutely nothing. If we want to make an adjustment, we may have to guess which one we are using. But, there are several ways to change their name and we are going to explain them to you.

If you’ve ever had to make any adjustments to your network adapter, you’ve seen that it has a generic name. This name has never been changed by Microsoft and few people know that it can be customized. A very useful aspect if you have several assets or have several network points according to needs.

Modify the network adapter name in Windows 10

Possibly, it is the fastest and easiest method to carry out this process within Windows 10. You must follow these steps:

1. Right click on the Windows icon.
2. We enter “Settings”.
3. Let’s go to “Network and Internet”.
4. Click on “Change adapter options”.
5. Within the new window, right click on any of the network adapters.
6. In the context menu, we select the “Change name” option.
7. We enter the name we want and accept.

It’s no longer a mystery, really, although this is something that not many people know is perfectly viable to do.

Modify the network adapter name in Windows 11

Please note that this process is slightly different in this operating system due to the changes made in the configuration panel. Perhaps it is a little more intuitive than in Windows 10, something that is greatly appreciated. To change the connection name in Windows 11, follow these steps:

1. Go to the “Settings” of Windows 11.
2. Look in the left sidebar for the “Network and Internet” option.
3. Scroll down until you find “Advanced network settings”.
4. You have to display the network adapters menu.
5. You will see an option that says “Rename this adapter” and next to this option a “Rename” button.
6. Enter the new name and click “Save”.

You can close everything, the name is already changed. As you can see, this method is quite quick and simple to do.

Common methods for Windows 10 and Windows 11

You have to know that, really, the differences between both operating systems are minimal. The biggest changes have to do with the graphic level, since many actions are done the same in both Microsoft software. We leave you the three mechanisms to change the name of the network adapter that are the same in Windows 10 and Windows 11.

From the Control Panel

This is the first of the mechanisms that is the same in both versions of the operating system. You have to follow this process:

1. Click on the Windows search engine.
2. Type “Control Panel” and click on the first option.
3. Access the “Networks and Internet” section
4. Go to “Network and Sharing Center.”
5. Next, go to “Change adapter settings”.
6. Within the new window, right click on any of the network adapters.
7. In the context menu, we select the “Change name” option.
8. We enter the name we want and accept.

You reach the same point as with the previous method, but carrying out other steps.

Using PowerShell

If you want to talk to your friends or brother-in-law, you can hit the keyboard a little and do it using commands. The process is as follows:

1. Right click on the Windows icon.
2. We open PowerShell (Administrator).
3. In the new window we enter the following command and press “Enter”: Get-NetAdapter | Format-List -Property Name
4. We will see all the network adapters in the system and to change the name we must write the command: Rename-NetAdapter -Name «OLD-NAME» -NewName «NEW-NAME»
   • Where we indicate “OLD-NAME” we put the name of the current network adapter, without quotes.
   • In “NEW-NAME” we enter the name we want, without quotes.
5. Close and done

As you can see, this process is much faster, but you have to hit the keyboard a little.

From the command prompt

This is another method to change the name using the keyboard a bit. Just like the previous way, it is not very complicated and requires just a few steps:

1. Click on the Windows search engine.
2. Type “Command Prompt” but run it as “Administrator”, it is very important.
3. Enter this command to show you all the network adapters: netsh interface show interface
4. We will see all the network adapters in the system and to change the name we must write the command: Rename-NetAdapter -Name «OLD-NAME» -NewName «NEW-NAME»
   • Where we indicate “OLD-NAME” we put the name of the current network adapter, without quotes.
   • In “NEW-NAME” we enter the name we want, without quotes.
5. You can now close.

The first part changes a little, but the last part is the same as the previous action.