Use commandline to show disabled network interfaces in windows? (Mobile Broadband and Regular Connections)

Question

There are a few ways you can list network interfaces via commandline. For example:

netsh interface show interface
netsh interface ip show interfaces
ipconfig |findstr "adapter"

For Mobile Broadband Connections:

netsh mbn show interfaces

All of those will list network interfaces as long as they are enabled. If you disable an interface (ie 'netsh interface set interface "interfaceName" admin=disable'), it will no longer be listed with those commands.

My question is this: how do you list an interface that has been disabled? Something that works for Mobile Broadband connections as well as regular connections would be great.

score 21 · Accepted Answer · edited Feb 22 '18 at 19:43

21

I found this command seems to work:

wmic nic get NetConnectionID

It shows regular connection interfaces including those that have been disabled however it only shows the name of the interface.

netsh interface show interface will show:

Admin State (Enabled or Disabled) State (Connected or Disconnected) Type: (Dedicated) And Interface Name : (local Area Connection or Wireless)

edited Feb 22 '18 at 19:43

bertieb

7,543

answered Jul 15 '13 at 07:45

Lectrode

571

score 7 · Answer 2 · answered May 14 '14 at 21:18

Make sure that you are using an elevated command-prompt, otherwise it won’t have access to everything and may not be able to show disabled interfaces as expected (figure 1). For example, I was unable to use the admin=disable parameter from a non-elevated prompt.

Technically, it should still be able to read the NICs from a non-elevated prompt—I was able to see all interfaces (figure 2) including disabled ones—so your system may have some policies or something in place that prevents it from working from a non-elevated one.

Figure 1: Screenshot of elevated command prompt showing disabled interfaces

Screenshot of elevated command prompt showing disabled interfaces

Figure 2: Screenshot of non-elevated command prompt showing disabled interfaces

Screenshot of non-elevated command prompt showing disabled interfaces

score 5 · Answer 3 · answered Jan 25 '20 at 11:42

netsh interface ip show interfaces store=persistent will show some disabled interfaces (but it will not show some active ones). It seems that there are two interface "stores" - active, which contains active interfaces (including some that are not persistent and are probably recreated every time, like loopback), and persistent, which contains the inactive ones, but this is just my guessing

score 5 · Answer 4 · answered Jan 13 '21 at 13:54

In PowerShell there are a few commansd that mirror the functionality of netsh interfaces discussed in other answers.

Get-NetAdapter seems to correspond to netsh interfaces show interfaces:

PS C:\> Get-NetAdapter
Name                      InterfaceDescription                    ifIndex Status       MacAddress             LinkSpeed

VirtualBox Host-Only ...2 VirtualBox Host-Only Ethernet Adap...#2      23 Up           XX-XX-XX-XX-XX-XX         1 Gbps
Ethernet                  TAP-Windows Adapter V9                       19 Disconnected XX-XX-XX-XX-XX-XX       100 Mbps
Local Area Connection 2   Realtek PCIe GBE Family Controller           17 Up           XX-XX-XX-XX-XX-XX         1 Gbps
NextDNS                   TAP-Windows Adapter V9 #2                    41 Disconnected XX-XX-XX-XX-XX-XX       100 Mbps

netsh interfaces ip show interfaces and netsh interfaces ipv6 show interfaces seem to be covered by Get-NetIPInterface:

PS C:\> Get-NetIPInterface
ifIndex InterfaceAlias                  AddressFamily NlMtu(Bytes) InterfaceMetric Dhcp     ConnectionState PolicyStore

41      NextDNS                         IPv6                  1500              35 Enabled  Disconnected    ActiveStore
17      Local Area Connection 2         IPv6                  1500              25 Enabled  Connected       ActiveStore
1       Loopback Pseudo-Interface 1     IPv6            4294967295              75 Disabled Connected       ActiveStore
23      VirtualBox Host-Only Network #2 IPv6                  1500              25 Enabled  Connected       ActiveStore
19      Ethernet                        IPv6                  1500              35 Disabled Disconnected    ActiveStore
41      NextDNS                         IPv4                  1500                 Enabled  Disconnected    ActiveStore
17      Local Area Connection 2         IPv4                  1500              25 Enabled  Connected       ActiveStore
1       Loopback Pseudo-Interface 1     IPv4            4294967295              75 Disabled Connected       ActiveStore
23      VirtualBox Host-Only Network #2 IPv4                  1500              25 Disabled Connected       ActiveStore
19      Ethernet                        IPv4                  1500              35 Enabled  Disconnected    ActiveStore

And the persistent store can be viewed with the -PolicyStore option:

PS C:\> Get-NetIPInterface -PolicyStore persistentstore
ifIndex InterfaceAlias                  AddressFamily NlMtu(Bytes) InterfaceMetric Dhcp     ConnectionState PolicyStore

16      Teredo Tunneling Pseudo-Inte... IPv6 41      NextDNS 19      Ethernet 23      VirtualBox Host-Only Network #2 IPv6 5       Local Area Connection* 5 14      Local Area Connection* 3 13      Local Area Connection* 4 10      Local Area Connection* 2 18      Wireless Network Connection 3   IPv6 20      Local Area Connection 17      Local Area Connection 2 15      Ethernet 2 12      Bluetooth Network Connection 2  IPv6 11      Wireless Network Connection     IPv6 21      Wireless Network Connection 2   IPv6 9       Local Area Connection* 1 22      VirtualBox Host-Only Network    IPv6 41      NextDNS 19      Ethernet 23      VirtualBox Host-Only Network #2 IPv4 18      Wireless Network Connection 3   IPv4 20      Local Area Connection 17      Local Area Connection 2 15      Ethernet 2 12      Bluetooth Network Connection 2  IPv4 11      Wireless Network Connection     IPv4 21      Wireless Network Connection 2   IPv4 9       Local Area Connection* 1 22      VirtualBox Host-Only Network    IPv4

1280                                          Persiste... IPv6                                                                Persiste... IPv6                                                                Persiste... Persiste... IPv6                                                                Persiste... IPv6                  1280                                          Persiste... IPv6                                                                Persiste... IPv6                  1280                                          Persiste... Persiste... IPv6                                                                Persiste... IPv6                                                                Persiste... IPv6                                                                Persiste... Persiste... Persiste... Persiste... IPv6                                                                Persiste... Persiste... IPv4                                                                Persiste... IPv4                                                                Persiste... Persiste... Persiste... IPv4                                                                Persiste... IPv4                                                                Persiste... IPv4                                                                Persiste... Persiste... Persiste... Persiste... IPv4                                                                Persiste... Persiste...

Use commandline to show disabled network interfaces in windows? (Mobile Broadband and Regular Connections)

4 Answers4

Linked