So, the other day, I wanted to delete some wifi networks that my computer had remembered and went to control panel to find the familiar “Manage wireless networks” screen (as I was used to doing in my trusty old Windows 7 days). Well, I had installed Windows 8 so this was going to be different. When I got to the Control Panel > Network and Internet > Network and Sharing Center, guess what – no “Manage Wireless Networks” option was available all of a sudden (see picture below). Why Microsoft thought that was a good idea is beyond me (I only hope they bring it back in Windows Blue).
No “Manage Wireless Networks” in Windows 8
Well, I still had to manage my wireless networks. So, I went ahead and started playing around to find the settings – my only conclusion after a few frustrating minutes was that you can’t find it from the control panel. I think they have basically taken it out or made it increasingly hard to find.
So, now I still had the problem that I wanted to forget a network. While playing around with the list of networks that becomes available when you click the wifi icon in the status tray, I accidentally right-clicked the network I was connected to. And out came a context menu that was not available in Windows 7. It allowed me to forget the network as well as check connection properties – two things that I used to do from the “Manage Wireless Networks” option in Windows 7 (see picture below). It does also add a couple of new options as you can see.
The options I was looking for in Windows 8
This is all good and well, but I still don’t know how to forget networks that are no longer in range of my computer (as I travel the world, I accumulate a whole lot of networks that I will never use again). This is something else I could do using the “Manage Wireless Networks” option in Windows 7. Well, that is a problem for another day I guess, but at least I could forget the network I was trying to forget.