PowerShell Disable-NetAdapter

PowerShell v 3.0 Disable Network AdapterDisable-NetAdapter

PowerShell version 3 makes it easier than ever to control your NIC (Network Interface Card) with Enable and Disable-NetAdapter cmdlets.

Tutorial for Disable-NetAdapter

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Scenarios for PowerShell’s Disable-NetAdapter

There are scenarios where you would need to disable a network adapter, for example controlling Wi-Fi usage.  On the other hand, there are situations where your computer has multiple NICs and you want to choose which one is active.

Windows PowerShell v 3.0 offers an easier, more versatile alternative to grappling with ‘Netsh’ at the command line: Netsh interface set interface <NIC Name> Disabled

The only problem with PowerShell’s Disable-NetAdapter is that you need to know the Name of your NIC.  This is where the sister cmdlet Get-NetAdapter is handy.

Discover the Names of Your NICs

# PowerShell script to enumerate your network cards.
Get-NetAdapter | Format-Table Name, InterfaceDescription -Auto

Note 1:  You can research more properties by appending | Get-Member.

How to Disable One of Your Network Cards

Preliminary step: before you launch PowerShell, right-click and ‘Run as Administrator’.

# PowerShell script to disable your network cards.
Disable-NetAdapter -Name ‘Wi-Fi’

Note 2:  Most likely you need to change the name ‘Wi-Fi’ for the name of your network card revealed by the Discover script above.

Note 3:  You can omit the -Name parameter as PowerShell v 3.0 assumes that the word after NetAdapter is indeed the name of the NIC.

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Enable Your Disabled Network CardDisable-NetAdapter

For testing purposes you may wish to ‘Enable’ the network card, and thus reverse the effect of Disable-NetAdapter.

# PowerShell script to enable your network card.
$YourNic = ‘Wi-Fi’
Enable-NetAdapter -Name $YourNic
Restart-NetAdapter -Name $YourNic

Note 4:  Remember this: before you launch PowerShell 3.0 ISE, right-click and Run as Administrator.

Research Microsoft’s NetAdapter Cmdlet Family

Get-Command -Noun netadapter

CommandType  Name            ModuleName
———–         ——            ————
Function Disable-NetAdapter  NetAdapter
Function Enable-NetAdapter   NetAdapter
Function Get-NetAdapter        NetAdapter
Function Rename-NetAdapter NetAdapter
Function Restart-NetAdapter   NetAdapter
Function Set-NetAdapter        NetAdapter

Troubleshooting Disable-NetAdapter

If you don’t have the cmdlet / function called Disable-NetAdapter, then firstly, check that your version of PowerShell is v 3.0.  It also seems that this cmdlet is only available in Windows 8 and Server 2012. 

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Getting Started With PowerShell v 3.0Disable-NetAdapter

  • Launch PowerShell (Preferably the ISE version)
  • Copy the lines of code in the above examples (into memory).
  • Right-click in the top pane.
  • Paste.

More PowerShell v 3.0 Networking Cmdlets

One way to discover more about the new version 3 cmdlets is look at the ‘Modules’ in the Commands pane,  once the ISE has launched.

See more examples of PowerShell v 3.0 NetAdapter cmdlets ยป

Summary of PowerShell Disable-NetAdapter Cmdlet

PowerShell version 3 brings hundreds of new cmdlets.  If you research the NetAdapter noun then you will see a family of Get, Enable and Disable-NetAdapter cmdlets.

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See more Microsoft PowerShell v 3.0 examples

PowerShell 3.0  • What’s New in PowerShell 3.0  • PowerShell v 3.0 ISE  • PowerShell Home

Get-NetAdapter  • Disable-NetAdapter  • Enable-NetAdapter  • Get-NetIPConfiguration

PowerShell Network Cmdlets  • PowerShell 3.0 Logon Script  • PowerShell Show-Command