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When a Windows Server (2012 or -R2) comes back from Stopped+Deallocated state in Azure, the “Do you want to find PCs, devices, and content on this network, and automatically connect to devices like printers and TVs?” question often appears:

The question appears again and again because Windows creates new network profiles, I guess due to Azure it feels to have new network adapters: after a few weeks of regular turn off/on cycles the (only one) network adapter listed is named "Ethernet 89" and the network profile is named "Network 19" - note the numbers.

Solutions I found so far to this problem suggest setting the public/private property of the network profile, which does not help as it is a new network profile every time. Others suggest turning off network discovery in the Domain profiles, but I don't have that:

The above settings don't prevent Windows from displaying the question for every new network profiles.

I must avoid this prompt because it steals the focus from a GUI program that is about to be started and automated on this server.

How to disable this question about new networks?

Community
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robert4
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  • Can you force Windows to always choose "Public" as the network type? I know at least on Windows 7 selecting Home/Office pops up with that prompt (and homegroup...ugh), but Public doesn't. – Nathan C Oct 10 '14 at 12:10
  • @Nathan I'm not sure I understand what do you mean. What is Home/Office, where is this setting? AFAIK selecting between Public↔Private, or creating a Homegroup is only possible on a particular network profile. The core of the problem here is that a new network profile is created every time, so it doesn't matter what was set for a previous one. To be specific: `HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\NetworkCards` contains 89 subkeys (only 1 is used) and `...\NetworkList\Profiles` contains 19 subkeys (only 1 is used). – robert4 Oct 10 '14 at 17:49

3 Answers3

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Here is the solution, try to create the registry key HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Network\NewNetworkWindowOff

Reference https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg252535(v=ws.10).aspx

David Stuart
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  • Along with the link, will you include the steps for modifying the registry entry in the answer itself? – billyw Aug 04 '15 at 19:30
  • [There is a blog post](https://pbradz.wordpress.com/2015/04/01/windows-server-2012-r2-vms-and-the-network-location-wizard/) about the difficulties with setting that registry key. (TL;DR: instead of regedit, use `reg add` from the console). Unfortunately I cannot try this out on the server I mentioned in the question and confirm that this method really works, this is why I don't accept this answer, but +1 – robert4 Aug 10 '15 at 14:49
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I changed the following two services to Disabled:

  • ltdsvc (Link-Layer Topology Discovery Mapper)
  • NlaSvc (Network Location Awareness)

and the problem seems to be solved.
However, I'm not satisfied with this solution, there must be a less obtrusive way.

robert4
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Open an elevated Command Prompt (CMD) and type :

    reg ADD HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Network\NewNetworkWindowOff /f
Alon Or
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    It is recommended to explain any command and code samples you include, so that the answer is clearer and more useful - could you do so please? – BE77Y Sep 06 '16 at 08:48