Windows 10: Network showing as 'public' not 'private'.

My private network shows up as 'public' on my new laptop and 'private' on my 1-year old desktop. Both are using Windows 11. How do I get it private on the laptop?

:)

 

Change Network from Public to Private

Hi,

Thank you for your interest in Windows 10.

I suggest you to follow the steps below to
change your network from Public to Private:

• 
  Type PowerShell in Search Window and then right click on it and click on
  Run as Administrator.
  
• 
  Type the following command to find your interface Index:
  Get-NetConnectionProfile
  
• 
  Use your interface index (for example 5) with this command:
  Set-NetConnectionProfile -InterfaceIndex 5 -NetworkCategory Private
  
• 
  Now reboot the device and check if the network has changed from Public to Private.
  

Hope this information is helpful. Please do let us know if you need further assistance, we’ll be glad to assist you.

 

Network showing as public

Hi Connor,

By default, the public network location type is assigned to any new networks when they are first connected. A public network is considered to be shared with the world, with no protection between the local computer and any other computer. Therefore,
the Windows Firewall rules associated with the public profile are the most restrictive.

To change settings from public to private, follow the steps below:

• Open the Locale Security Policy.
• In the left pane, click/tap on Network List Manager Policies.
• In the right pane of Network List Manager Policies, double click/tap on your network name
• Click/tap on the Network Location tab.
• Under Location type, select Private.
• Under User permissions, select (dot) User cannot change location.
• Click/tap on OK, and close Local Security Policy.

Note: You must be signed in as an administrator to be able to change the network location of a network adapter.

Let us know if you have other questions.

 

Set Network Location to Private or Public in Windows 10  

Hi Brink and thank you for the welcome

I tried what you suggested but when doing this, i noticed that whenever i am connected to my VPN, the Windows network shows up as "unidentified network" instead of network 1,2,3 or whatever. So when i went into regedit and looked for networks, i found some but none called unidentified.
There was one network with the value 0 so i changed it to 1 (private) but after checking, my VPN connection still shows as public.

I am not really sure why it says unidentified network in Windows when i am connected to the VPN but it seems that this is the cause for the problem. If i could only find the VPN network in the list of networks in regedit, i think i would be able to change the value to 1.

Hmm..not sure how to proceed with this. Any ideas?