Windows 7 : Any way to disable “show caracter” in WIFI network properties?

Question

Here's my issue. I'm working in a school as IT Tech and I'm currently planning to roll out Windows 7 on students laptop.

The issue is : When you go to the properties of a WIFI network, you have the fields to input the WIFI key, WPA2 key here in my case, and you also have a checkbox that allow you to "unmask" the caracters of the wifi key. This is actually the problem. Anyone who can access the WIFI network properties, will be able to see the WIFI key, which is really an issue in a school envrironnement where student are all eager to get the key for their precious IPod Touch, what I don't want to happen for obvious reasons...

So, is there a way to disable that checkbox or else, make the field cleared out when the checkbox is checked, just like it was on Windows XP or Vista?

Thanks all for your answer.

Update April 29 2010

I just test it out on a Windows Vista laptop, and Vista isn't affected by this bug! So this is really just on Windows Seven that the check box is "checkable" when a password is input. I keep searching on a way to resolve this problem.

Answer 1

As far as I know, you cannot override this option.

You can, however, set up a standard user (non-admin) account for the users and set up the network on that account. From there, they'll need the admin password to be able to check the 'Show password' box. Note the 'Admin' logo next to the check box below:

Answer 2

Wireless keys are usually not very secure, so using it as the only mechanism of controlling access to a school's wireless network is not an ideal solution. You should instead keep track of the Wireless MAC address of each laptop and use access points that allow you to restrict access via MAC address. There are lots of WAP Management solutions available that let you control access to a large wireless network. Alternatively you could setup the DHCP server to only respond to MAC addresses that have been validated, which would help prevent unauthorized users from accessing the network.

Answer 3

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**i think in a roaming environment of users...we cannot set mac address of all the client pc's to access point...if we have 500 users then it will be a problem to set all mac-address on all access points...if we will set mac-address according to areas,,then if users move from one area to another...he will face problem to connect to accesspoint..as his mac address will not match will aother access point.....so it is a security hole in windows vista..that people can see the key in wireless settings after clicking on the check box....

Mohd AKram**