How to Rename Network Adapter on Windows 11

After installing the latest version of Windows 11 on your PC, you might have seen your local ethernet internet named as an unknown network on your computer. This is very common with newly installed OS as they are not able to check the connected network adapter with the machine. However, if you need to change the name to a more suitable title, let’s say “Rahul’s Internet” or “Work internet” then you can easily rename the network adapter in Windows 11 with these few tricks.

Microsoft’s Windows 11 is out now with a lot of changes both in the system as well as the user interface. With the new implementation, you may not be able to find some settings to make any adjustments to your system. Especially when Microsoft is trying to promote its Windows Settings app against the control panel for the sake of UI consistency.

Similarly, many people want to change the name of the network adapter they use to connect to the internet. But they might be overhauled by the new theme and reworked settings application. So here, in this article, we are going to explain how you can rename your network adapter from the new Windows 11 settings app. We will also include some old-school methods just so you could refresh your memory.

How to rename network adapter on Windows 11

When you rename a network adapter in Windows, it will appear as your specified name in the windows notification tab. Moreover, all the network data will be stored by the particular name you set. Although Windows 11 have an inbuilt system that renames the card according to the use case. But in most cases, it renames them as unknown network” or “open network”, which is not ideal if you need a specific name. So here are few methods by which you can easily change this up.

Method 1: Using the Settings app

Even from Windows 10, Microsoft started to move certain settings and options from the control panel to the settings app. Similarly, in Windows 11, you can find more options, including the one to change the name of the network adapter you are connecting with. So here’s how you can change it from the settings app.

1. Open the settings application from the Start menu or using the keyboard shortcut Windows key + I.
2. From the left side, look for Network and internet and click on it.
   
3. Then from the right side, towards the bottom, you should be able to find Advanced Network settings. Click on it.
   
4. Now you should be able to see all network adapters available on your computer. Click on the one you want to rename and expand it.
   
5. Click on Rename button to rename the network adapter.
6. Provide your preferred name and click on Save.

That’s it. The name of the network adapter will be changed to the one you have just specified. You can continue using the network now without any issues. A reboot is not required usually unless you have changed any other options like driver settings etc.

Method 2: Using the Network Connections Panel

Well, you could always use the good old control panel to do whatever changes you want to make to your computer. Trust me, system admins and technicians love the control panels for a reason. That is, those options are almost similar across all versions of windows. So we could benefit a lot from it.

1. 1. Open the Run box using the keyboard shortcut Windows key + R.
      
      
   2. Type in the following text and hit enter.

      ncpa.cpl

   3. Now you should be able to see all network adapters installed on your system.
      
   4. Simply right-click on any adapter and click on rename.
      
   5. You should be able to rename the adapter easily.

That’s it, and this is how you can rename your network adapter using the control panel. No matter how windows will implement its settings and options to the settings app, the control panel is a very easy place to make modifications to your system.

Method 3: Using the command line or PowerShell

Talking on old-school but reliable methods, we have the good old command prompt at our disposal. Command prompt has been there from the ages of DOS. If you are comfortable with typing text, then you should definitely use the command prompt method. It is a one-click solution to most problems.

1. Open command prompt as admin. You can use the Keyboard shortcut Windows key + X and press A to open Powershell as admin. Both will work fine.
2. Now type in the following command to show all available network interfaces.

   netsh interface ipv4 show interface

   

3. This will show you all available network interfaces. Take a note of what you want to rename.
4. Now type in the following command but replace the part after name = to suit your need.

   netsh interface set interface name = "Local Area Connection 3" newname = "HomeNet"

For instance, the above command will rename the Local Area Connection 3 to HomeNet.

As mentioned above, you can use both Powershell and Command prompt to do the task as long as you launch them with admin rights. If maybe require an administrator password if you are not an admin user but a standard user.

Conclusion

So as you can see, renaming a network adapter in Windows 11 is very easy. You may find the Settings option quite different from old school methods like command prompt or control panel. Windows is trying to make the user experience more coherent by moving more and more options to the settings app from the control panel. But it’s just windows, and even if everything is changed, at least the command prompt method will not change. We can put out minds to rest, at least in that regard.