How To Fix WiFi Missing After Windows Update (Easy FIX), by Guide Sphere on YouTube. 2 min 47 s.
- Video length
- 2 min 47 s
- Time to do it
- 15 minutes
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Steps
- 10
What you need
Steps
Click the network, sound and battery icons in the taskbar on Windows 11, or the network icon on Windows 10. If no WiFi tile or list of networks appears, the adapter is not working.
Turn off Airplane mode and check for a physical WiFi switch or Fn key on your laptop. A switch flipped off during the update looks exactly like a missing adapter.
Right-click Start and choose Device Manager. Open Network adapters and look for your wireless adapter, an entry with a yellow warning triangle, or an entry named Unknown device.
If the adapter is there but greyed out, right-click it and choose Enable device. Then restart the PC and check the taskbar again.
Right-click the wireless adapter and choose Update driver, then Search automatically for drivers. Let Windows find and install a newer driver.
If that finds nothing, go back to Device Manager, right-click the adapter and choose Uninstall device. Tick the box to delete the driver software, then restart so Windows reinstalls it.
Open Settings, go to System, then Troubleshoot, then Other troubleshooters. Run the Network and Internet troubleshooter and apply any fix it offers.
Press Windows key and R, type services.msc and press Enter. Find WLAN AutoConfig, set Startup type to Automatic, then click Start.
As a last resort, go to Settings, Network and internet, Advanced network settings and click Network reset. Read the warning, confirm, and let the PC restart after the five minute countdown.
If WiFi is still missing, download the wireless driver for your exact model from the PC maker's support site on another device, copy it over by USB and install it.
Tips and common mistakes
A network reset wipes every saved WiFi network and password, so keep those details handy before you run it.
Windows Update sometimes installs a generic driver that breaks WiFi, so use the Roll Back Driver button in Device Manager if the problem started right after an update.
Some updates need one more restart to finish installing, so restart before you start changing drivers.
Stay off random driver download sites and use only your PC maker's support page or Windows Update.
Questions
Why did my WiFi disappear after a Windows update?
The update likely replaced your wireless driver with a generic one or disabled the adapter. Reinstalling the driver or rolling it back usually restores it.
Will a network reset delete my files?
No, your documents and apps stay. It only removes saved WiFi networks, VPN connections and custom network settings, so you need to rejoin WiFi afterwards.
How do I fix WiFi if I have no internet to download drivers?
Use an Ethernet cable, a USB WiFi dongle or another device to download the driver from your PC maker's site, then move it across with a USB stick.
This guide was drafted from the video's details and general task knowledge. It has not been checked against the full video. Check the video and relevant product instructions before following a procedure. Report a correction.
