How do I enable random hardware addresses in Windows 10?

Wi-Fi is a wireless local area network (WLAN) technology and standard that uses high-frequency radio waves to provide wireless Internet and network connections to your Windows device.

When you're not connected to Wi-Fi, your PC sends a signal to look for Wi-Fi networks in the area to help you get connected. The signal contains the unique physical hardware (MAC) address for your device. Some places, for example shopping malls, stores, or other public areas, might use this unique address to track your movement in that area. If your Wi-Fi hardware supports it, you can turn on random hardware addresses to make it harder for people to track you when your PC scans for networks and connects.

There's two controls for using random hardware addresses—one is for all Wi-Fi networks and the other is for the specific Wi-Fi network you choose. When you turn it on for all networks, random hardware addresses are used while your PC scans for networks and connects to any network. When it's turned on for a specific network you choose, random hardware addresses are used the next time you connect to that network.

This tutorial will show you how to turn on or off use random hardware (MAC) addresses for Wi-Fi networks in Windows 11.

Contents

• Option One: Turn On or Off Use Random Hardware Addresses for All Wi-Fi Networks
• Option Two: Turn On or Off Use Random Hardware Addresses for Specific Wi-Fi Network

Option One

Turn On or Off Use Random Hardware Addresses for All Wi-Fi Networks

1 Open Settings (Win+I).

2 Click/tap on Network & internet on the left side, and click/tap on Wi-Fi on the right side. (see screenshot below)

Open Wi-Fi Settings

3 Turn On or Off (default) Random hardware addresses for what you want. (see screenshot below)

4 You can now close Settings if you like.

Option Two

Turn On or Off Use Random Hardware Addresses for Specific Wi-Fi Network

1 Open Settings (Win+I).

2 Click/tap on Network & internet on the left side, and click/tap on Wi-Fi on the right side. (see screenshot below)

3 Click/tap on Manage known networks on the right side. (see screenshot below)

Open Manage known networks Settings

4 Click/tap on the Wi-Fi network (ex: "Brink-Router2") you want to turn on or off use random hardware addresses. (see screenshot below)

5 Select On, Off (default), or Change daily for what you want in the Random hardware addresses drop menu. (see screenshot below)

6 You can now close Settings if you like.

That's it,
Shawn Brink

Nowadays Wi-Fi networks are widely used, wherever you go, you can find the Wi-fi network. We can find free Wi-Fi in Malls, theaters, airports, and other public areas, Devices like Smartphones, Laptops, and tablets, automatically picks the Wi-Fi signal once you are in a certain range. you can see all the discovered Wi-Fi networks under the wifi settings on your device, by choosing the Wifi network, you can easily connect to that particular wifi network. If the wifi network is enabled with the security you’ll get a password prompt, if there is no security you can easily connect to the wifi network by clicking on connect without the password. Each laptop and smartphones have their own wifi module, which is used to discover the wifi network and connect. Once you turn on the wifi module, the device will start to send signals to discover the wifi network. This signal data contains the MAC address, each wifi module has its own unique MAC address. once you are connected to an open wifi network, then it’s very easy to track you with the MAC address. Hackers can able to track your internet activities with the help of a MAC address. In Windows 10/11 you can change your MAC address easily by enabling the feature called Random Hardware Address, so once you enable the Random Hardware Address, Windows will automatically assign a new random mac address each time while you connect to any wifi network. There are two controls for using random hardware addresses—one is for all Wi-Fi networks and the other is for the specific Wi-Fi network you choose. This article will guide you to Enable or Disable Random Hardware Addresses in Windows 10.

• Enable or Disable Random Hardware Addresses in Windows 10:
• Enable RHA for Known Networks:

Open Windows Settings by pressing Windows + I and from the left-hand side click on the Network & Internet option.

And from the right-hand side click on the Wi-Fi option, under the Wi-Fi settings window, scroll down and go to the Random Hardware Addresses option.

Turn on the Random hardware addresses toggle button.

This will enable the Random hardware addresses settings for your Wi-Fi, So while your Wi-Fi adapter searches for any new network, it will assign a new random mac address. This will eliminate the chance of getting tracked by others, especially in the public Network.

If you are already connected to any Wi-Fi network, then you can enable the Random Hardware addresses option for that network. So that each time you connect to that network, the system will assign a different MAC address.

Enable RHA for Known Networks:

Open Windows Settings by pressing Windows + I and from the left-hand side click on the Network & Internet option.

Under Wi-Fi option click on Manage Known networks, and under Known Networks, choose the network for which you want to enable the Random Hardware address option, and click on Properties.

Under Properties, click on the drop-down menu of Use random addresses for this network and choose On or Change daily.

There is a difference between these two options, on will assign different dummy MAC addresses, and Change daily will assign different MAC addresses on daily basis.

That’s it you have enabled the option successfully, now no one can track your network.

Related: How To find the Gateway IP address in Mac OS X?