Question Where does windows 10 store its wifi connection list?

Lord-Xanthor

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Aug 5, 2019
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Im trying to find the location/folder in windows 10 that stores all the ssid wifi names. Despite the forget option, windows is somehow unable to remove a connection fully that carried over from several build upgrades that has me now at build 1903. When my pc connects to one of the four 5.0 ssids my router broadcasts, I noticed when mousing over that it added a 2 in the name to one of the four ssids. I used to rely on Home group and now use share feature with networking, but discovered when my pc connects to the ssid with 2 in the name, anyone trying to connect gets an error. Normally when a 2 or higher gets added its because a setting with same name exists. Id like to find the folder or registry location so it can be removed. Id rather do this than have to change the ssid in over 40 devices.
 

Ralston18

Titan
Moderator
Make and model router?

Are the four SSID's established per the following scheme/listing?

SSID #1 = Network 2.4 GHz
SSID #2 = Guest 2.4 GHz
SSID #3 = Network 5.0 GHz
SSID #4 = Guest 5.0 GHz

And you are seeing something like SSID(2) for one of the above - correct?

Have you tried running the built-in Windows' 10 network troubleshooters?

The troubleshooters may find and fix something.

You can use regedit to search the registry for "SSID(2) but really should be only a last resort and only if you have made the recommended backup copies of the registry.

Just see what you can find - just do not do any editing.
 
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Lord-Xanthor

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Aug 5, 2019
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4,510
(EDIT: Issue Solved!)

Router is Asus RT-AC88U
You were close,

SSID #1 = Network 5.0 GHz
SSID #2 = Network 2.4 GHz
SSID #3 = Guest 5.0 GHz
SSID #4 = Guest 2.4 GHz
SSID #5 = Guest 5.0 GHz Off - Not Activated
SSID #6 = Guest 2.4 GHz Off - Not Activated
SSID #7 = Guest 5.0 GHz Off - Not Activated
SSID #8 = Guest 2.4 GHz Off - Not Activated

I have plenty of Image backups, so no worries if I mess something up. This problem carried over from last year when my neighbor thought it was cute to copy my SSID and didn't catch on till after the fact. I had it forget the incorrect one, and after upgrading to build 1903, was having problems with network sharing. Wasn't till I noticed the 2 in the name during mouse over, that I had a hunch it was the cause. Changing the SSID, fixed the issue, and having to change everything else will be a pain, but at the same time, since I already ran the troubleshooter and came up with nothing, wanted to know where it was storing the info in the first place so I can remove the data,

Update from above Edit:
Thanks Ralston18. Don't know why I didn't think to look at the registry. I was so sure when I saw the (2) I was looking for a file. There was 3 references to the duplicate SSID, One was public for the first, the other with (2) private. Have a feeling this was the cause of the intermittent problem of network sharing on my main server vanishing on and of and refusing connection. After tripple checking, I removed all references to the old and new, then re-entered the SSID through network settings. Rebooted to make sure all took effect. All PCs and android devices were able to connect once again without connection refusal and without the library vanishing, and mousing over the SSID, matched up with all settings, no (2). Ill post what I did shortly, or just modify it here.

This was done after selecting forget in connections. I removed complete reference folders to old connections first in:

Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\NetworkList\Profiles\
Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\NetworkList\Signatures\Unmanaged\
 
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