System tray shows wireless icon even when ethernet wired?

Question

So I have noticed that this has become a bit of an issue on Windows 7 laptops lately. Despite having re-ordered the interfaces to prioritize the wired connection in the network adapters advanced settings, the system tray icon still appears as the wireless signal strength icon.

I have double-checked route print and it indicates that wired does, in fact, have a higher metric than wireless. netsh int ipv4 show interfaces also confirms this. However, I do note that the wireless index is 11, whereas the gigabit NIC's index is 18. Not sure if this would be the cause, but I also cannot figure out how to change these numbers.

Answer 1

I have double-checked route print and it indicates that wired does, in fact, have a higher metric than wireless. netsh int ipv4 show interfaces also confirms this. However, I do note that the wireless index is 11, whereas the gigabit NIC's index is 18. Not sure if this would be the cause, but I also cannot figure out how to change these numbers.

The lower the metric number, the higher the priority if your prefix length and administrative distance are the same. Reference. This reference is mainly for routers and such, but from my experience Windows will use metrics to prioritize the traffic. Since your wireless is set to 11 and your wired is set to 18, the wireless will take priority over your wired connection. Think of metrics as choices, 1 is the first choice, 2 is second, 3 is third, etc. Also, please be aware that the icon is just a status indicator, and I believe that the wireless icon takes precedence over the wired icon.

Edit: I forgot to mention how to change the priorities, you can change them by following these instructions.