3

After disabling most of my connections (all except one actually) I am surprised to go to the task manager, network tab and see two connections there.

Picture of the connections in control panel:

enter image description here

Picture of task manager screen:

enter image description here

EDIT: As it turns out, it was a virtual adapter that was installed by a program. Uninstalling the program removed the adapter. Why did it not show up as an adapter in the first place in the networking center in the control panel?

Improve this question
10
  • Have you tried clicking on it with the mouse, then pressing the "Delete" key on the keyboard (or right-clicking then choosing "Delete")?
    – Randolf Richardson
    Aug 8, 2011 at 17:11
  • A lot of these are virtual connections - are you sure that one isn't as well? Can you find what adapter it's on?
    – Shinrai
    Aug 8, 2011 at 17:11
  • 2
    @Randolf: The Delete option isn't available for built-in adapters.
    – Tamara Wijsman
    Aug 8, 2011 at 17:14
  • 1
    @Tom Wijsman: It's not on my Windows 7 laptop (even though I have BlueTooth drivers installed). What do you mean by "built-in" in this context?
    – Randolf Richardson
    Aug 8, 2011 at 17:20
  • 1
    @Randolf: I actually mean physical, rather than virtual.
    – Tamara Wijsman
    Aug 8, 2011 at 20:12

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
3

The proper way to disable connections that you will not use on a daily basis is in the device manager.

Open the device manager, under Network adapters disable the adapters you don't use.

In my highly tweaked set-up it looks like this, in your case the Atheros AR8131 can be disabled:

enter image description here

Under View, the Show hidden devices option shows more devices, be careful with them.

Improve this answer
3
  • Would these adapters also show up in the networking center under adapters? That is how I was disabling the rest of the connections. Why would a connection be in one place and not the other?
    – soandos
    Aug 8, 2011 at 17:19
  • Regarding the Hidden Devices, I've encountered a few which can't be deleted outside of Safe Mode. (+1 for this great answer, especially because of the "be careful with them" warning.)
    – Randolf Richardson
    Aug 8, 2011 at 17:23
  • @soandos: Only those that can serve an internet connection towards your applications would show up in the networking center, other adapters are meant to support extra features. Like asynchroneous RAS, IPv6, IKE and so on. For example, disabling PPPOE would result in the inability to use a dial-up connection...
    – Tamara Wijsman
    Aug 8, 2011 at 20:14

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .