Windows 10 How to Fix Blank or Empty Network List (System Tray Network Icon)

This tutorial is to address an issue in Windows 10 where clicking on the network icon in the system tray (down by the system time) and having no connections listed or no wireless networks visible. This issue appears to stem from registry values being improperly toggled.

Network Icon
37256


This is a image of what you might normally see when you left click on the network icon.
37257




And here is how it can appear when settings are not correct. Note we see no network adapters nor the wireless SSIDs as seen above.
37254



Now to the fixing part.
  • Press [Windows key + r]
  • Type regedit and press enter
  • Expand the HKEY LOCAL MACHINE KEY to the following location HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\NetworkUxManager
  • Expanding the NetworkUXManager key you should see several registry keys (These each control specific interface types)
37258

  • The two most important to most people will be EthernetMediaManager and WlanMediaManager
  • Now lets go through each starting with DAMediaManager
  • Select each key shown above and locate the Active value shown in the right hand pane
    37259
  • If Active is not set to one double-click on Active and change the value to 1 and press OK
  • Repeat this process for each key on the left
Once these Active values are all set to 1 you should be able to click on the network icon down by the system tray and have all of your network adapters be visible as well as SSIDs shown available by your wireless network adapter if you have one
 
I have been SUFFERING with this problem on my SurfaceBook for nearly two years now. To the point where I have often wished I never bought the thing. Typically I loose all ability to see wireless SSIDS and join them, actually loose all ability to even see the Network Adaptors just as you showed here, when I have moved from one location to another, from home office to a customer site for example. Sometimes it also happens if the machine restarts due to doing an update, a software installation, or battery low - and on restart the ability to join or rejoin any network is lost.

My only way so far to get things working has been to rudely do a hard reset of the machine, losing all the open apps and tabs in the process, and creating an impression with clients that I am some sort of bumbling incompetent fool who has to fight with his computer for a quite a while before being able to use it in a meeting etc.

This tells me how I might get the machine working in a more efficient way without losing my place, and perhaps with a script to do it quickly and easily when necessary.

I have not known whether to blame the SurfaceBook for hardware malfunction or bad design, it's particular network adapter, the drivers for that adapter, or some other flaw in Windows 10 that just happens to pick my SurfaceBook and on SurfacePro4 tablet I've also seen sometimes do this, to create havoc with.

Nice as it is to know a better way to live with the problem, does anyone know more information about what is actually causing this to happen?
 
A few systems I've seen this issue were resolved with a Windows update. Which Surfacebook model/generation is it?

Attached is a registry file which will activate all the elements simply by double clicking it.
 

Attachments

  • NetworkUXActivateAll.zip
    426 bytes · Views: 307
Back
Top