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I recently installed a Netgear N600 WiFi adapter on my Windows 7 HP Desktop Computer. This adapter comes with its own drivers and a utility program for managing the adapter. I want to only use Netgear's program and disable the the Windows 7 default utility program (similar to XP's Wifi Zero). I tried ending the processes related to Windows 7's WiFi services, but the processes keep spawning back.

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2 Answers

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  1. Click Start, type Device Manager in the Start search box and hit Enter.
  2. Locate Network adapters and expand it.
  3. Select the wireless connection, right-click and select Properties.
  4. Go to the Driver tab and click Uninstall.
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I think amiregelz is on the right track, but just to expand a little... You will need the Netgear drivers installed for the adaptor to use it with their software. Remove the default Windows drivers and replace them with the Netgear ones. – HaydnWVN Aug 1 '12 at 13:25
I tried what @amiregelz suggested and rebooted, but the default Win7 keeps spawning back!.. Apparently Microsoft has made it so that even if you uninstall their drivers, it keeps comming back.. Frustrating! – Frank Computer Aug 1 '12 at 13:43
Then try to right-click the wireless connection and click Uninstall. – amiregelz Aug 1 '12 at 13:44
did that also, it disappeared, but then it came back again! I didn't have any problems under WinVista, but Win7 is a different animal. I wish I could install Vista SP2 on this box because I was much happier with it. – Frank Computer Aug 1 '12 at 13:45
Why do you want to uninstall the default WiFi driver anyway? – amiregelz Aug 1 '12 at 13:47
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I see that you don't want Windows 7 to manage your Netgear wireless adapter but rather want the Netgear's utility to manage it.

The wireless adapter in Windows 7 is managed by the service WLAN Auto Config service (wlansvc). You can tell Windows 7 to not to manage this by running the command:

 netsh wlan set autoconfig enabled=no interface=<wireless-intf-name>

where '' is name of the wireless connection; in most computers this usually named as 'Wireless Network Connection'. This command tells Windows 7 not to manage your wireless adapter.

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I previously tried this on administrator:command prompt, but it didn't work. I also disabled this service with msconfig, rebooted and it still respawns!.. Win7 is detecting it as not running, enables it and strats it back up, thus forcing it to be active. That's real crummy on Microsoft's part! – Frank Computer Aug 1 '12 at 15:34
As @Ramhound suggested why not then try connecting with Netgear utility directly? – Shivaranjan Aug 1 '12 at 16:27
I do that anyway, but I would just like to do away with Win7's WLAN manager all together, amongst other undesirable features, or even do away totally with Win7 and go back to Vista SP2. It seems like just about everything that comes out with newer versions wants to take more and more control away from the user and railroad things down your throat, like it or not. I hope another class action law suit emerges against Microsoft! The status quo of the computer industry has become more of a circus, being driven by greed! – Frank Computer Aug 1 '12 at 16:34

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