Locking taskbar wifi icon

[garethEds]

Morning All,

 

The latest game here in school is to change the wifi setting on our school laptops and forgetting the connection to the main device wifi. It's getting annoying.

 

Is anyone aware of a GPO that will either hide the wifi icon which appears on the bottom right, or at the very least lock it so it cannot be chosen to change anything?

 

I cannot find an option but maybe someone has.

 

Cheers

 

Gareth

[FN-GM]

We set the WIFI settings by group policy and then they can’t forget the SSID.

[garethEds]

We set the WIFI settings by group policy and then they can’t forget the SSID.

 

Yes we do that and the wifi SSID is chosen automatically, but somehow they are getting the laptop to forget it and it isn't then re-picking up - instead jumping to another SSID (a Guest one) which then presents them with a captive portal.

 

Cheers

 

Gareth

[mrwoberts]

Would any of these options help you?

 

http://www.edugeek.net/forums/windows/46788-prevent-students-changing-any-wireless-network-settings.html

 

https://www.grouppolicy.biz/2010/03/how-to-use-group-policy-to-blackwhite-list-wireless-networks-in-vista-windows-7/

 

Removing the Network icon (maybe slightly unhelpful in certain circumstances)

https://admx.help/?Category=Windows_10_2016&Policy=Microsoft.Policies.TaskBar2::HideSCANetwork

 

As a further measure, how about the action center altogether...

User config > Policies > Admin Templates > Start Menu and Taskbar

Remove Notifications and Action Center and Remove the networking icon policies.

 

I'm also thinking you'd need to prevent airplane mode, so here are so...

http://www.edugeek.net/forums/windows-10/192737-solved-disabling-airplane-mode-wireless-buttons-without-bios-settings.html

 

One last thing I just thought about is adding a scheduled task to (first check) then if needed, connect to the correct WiFi. This could be done as a script, which would include something like...

netsh wlan set profileparameter name="YOUR_WIFI_SSID_GOES_HERE" connectionmode=auto
netsh wlan connect name="YOUR_WIFI_SSID_GOES_HERE"

[jthompson]

Am I right in thinking that the option to forget an SSID is only available in the Settings app or via Control Panel? If so, blocking access to those for students may solve your issue.

[mrwoberts]

Am I right in thinking that the option to forget an SSID is only available in the Settings app or via Control Panel? If so, blocking access to those for students may solve your issue.

 

I believe any user can right-click on the WiFi SSID in the system tray list and choose (Disconnect, Properties, or Forget)

[jthompson]

I believe any user can right-click on the WiFi SSID in the system tray list and choose (Disconnect, Properties, or Forget)

 

You learn something new every day

Testing that in our environment here, it has no effect on our radius SSIDs, and whilst it disconnects PSK-based SSIDs, they don't appear to actually get forgotten.

 

If it's causing problems, hiding the network icon seems like the best course of action, if only for the immediate time being.

[FN-GM]

Yes we do that and the wifi SSID is chosen automatically, but somehow they are getting the laptop to forget it and it isn't then re-picking up - instead jumping to another SSID (a Guest one) which then presents them with a captive portal.

 

Cheers

 

Gareth

 

It should work. Do you use RADIUS? It might behave differently with a PSK.

 

You can also use GPO to block them connecting to the guest SSID.

Edited September 22, 2022 by FN-GM

[Guest Guest]

Are they doing this when signed in or on the Lock Screen?