17 February 2017

Windows 10 | Connect to wireless automatically before logging in

A client of mine had a MS Surface running Windows 10.  They were almost 100% wireless and kept running into issues where they'd login to their profile and then it would connect to the wireless.  That's not usually a problem, however in this case it was a roaming profile and caused some issues with connectivity.

To get around this, I was able to save the credentials prior to logging in, which allowed the Surface to connect to the Wireless before they actually go through the login process, and ensure that it has access to a Domain Controller.

Click on the 'WiFi' option from Network Settings


Click Wireless Properties
Click Advanced Settings

Select User Credentials then click Save Credentials.  It will then ask you to type in a username and password which it will then use to authenticate against the wireless prior to logging in.

Note: this isn't a scalable solution, and merely designed to get one or two users up and running on wireless devices.  This will cause problems if the user's password expires as well.

For a scalable solution, you will need to use Group Policy and define a Service Account username and password.

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