In this post we’ll be discussing Network Connections in Windows 7 and 8, specifically how to delete or rename them. I do a fair amount of traveling for work and everywhere I go I need to use my laptop. I turn on my phones wireless hotspot, connect and I’m always prompted to chose the type of network, be it home, work or public. Each time I choose the same type of network and then I’m told that I’ve connected to NetworkXXX where Network is proceeded by a sequential number. Being that I’m a little bit OCD with electronics, it bothers me that I have multiple connections to the same device for no apparent reason. Removing these connections isn’t as obvious as you’d think either. So lets see how to delete these network connections in Windows 7 first.

Delete / Rename Network Connections In Windows 7

First things first let get into the “Network and Sharing Center”. There’s a few ways to do this if you don’t know how so lets see your options:
1 – Hit the Windows button on the keyboard or click the Windows start button, immediately start typing “Network and Sharing Center”. It should appear in the list and you should select it.
2 – Right click on the network icon in the notification bar (those little icons in the bottom left corner of your screen) and click on “Open Network and Sharing Center”
3 – Go to your control panel, then Network and Internet and then Network and lastly Network and Sharing Center.

You should now see a screen that looks like the below:

Now click on the icon under “View your Active Networks” (Where the red arrow in the diagram above points).

You should now see the below screen:

On this screen you can rename the network connection or you can click on the link at the bottom left hand corner (where the red arrow points) that says “Merge and delete network locations”. If we click on the link we’ll come to the below window:

In the above window we can delete the network connections or merge them together. You can use typical multi-select features of windows to select various connections, including ctrl-a, shift select and ctrl select.

Delete / Rename Network Connections In Windows 8

Thanks to Microsoft, Windows 8 doesn’t have an easy way to accomplish this same process. The link to modify or delete the connections is no where to be found. The only way to remove the connections in Windows 8 is to do so by using the registry editor.

1- To open the registry editor press the Windows + R keys to open the Run dialog, type regedit, and press Enter. If prompted by UAC, then click on Yes.
2- Go to this folder: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\NetworkList\Profiles.
3- The Profiles folder will provide a list of all the network locations (past or recent) that you have used. Each network location is represented by a subfolder.
4- Here you can delete individual sub-folders to remove individual connections or if you’d like to delete all the connections simply delete all of the sub-folders within the Profiles folder.
5- To rename a network location, click on the corresponding sub-folder and edit the key named ProfileName. Input the new name for the network location.

If you’ve found this article helpful please consider commenting or sharing!