Wi-Fi on Windows Server? Yep, I’ve Done It (And It Wasn’t Pretty)

So here’s the deal—Windows Server doesn’t like Wi-Fi. Never has. It’s built for racks, cables, and uptime—not for roaming around on a laptop. But I’ve had to get it working anyway, usually in test labs or when I’m stuck somewhere with no Ethernet and a stubborn Hyper-V setup.

Last time I did this was on a ThinkPad with 32GB RAM, running Server 2022. No Wi-Fi icon. No networks. Just a blank stare from the taskbar. If you’ve been there, you know the feeling.

Why I Even Bothered

I was setting up a portable lab—Hyper-V, a few nested VMs, some firewall testing. Ethernet wasn’t an option. I could’ve used a USB dongle or tethered from my phone, but I wanted native Wi-Fi. Clean, scriptable, bootable.

Most guides say “just install Wireless LAN Service.” That’s technically correct, but it skips the weird stuff. Like how the adapter shows up but refuses to connect. Or how the service starts but the icon never appears.

What Actually Worked (Step-by-Step-ish)

Device Manager First

I hit Win + X → Device Manager → Network Adapters. My Intel AX200 was listed, but disabled. Enabled it. Still no Wi-Fi icon.

Installed the latest driver from Intel’s site. Windows Update didn’t help.

PowerShell Over GUI

Forget Server Manager. I ran:

Install-WindowsFeature -Name Wireless-Networking

Rebooted. Still no icon. I manually started the WLAN AutoConfig service:

Get-Service WlanSvc | Start-Service
Set-Service WlanSvc -StartupType Automatic

Boom—Wi-Fi icon appeared. Finally.

Connecting via PowerShell

I ran:

netsh wlan show networks
netsh wlan connect name="MySSID"

It failed the first time. Turns out I needed a saved profile. Exported one from my Windows 11 laptop:

netsh wlan export profile name="MySSID" folder=C:\WiFiProfiles

Then imported it on the server:

netsh wlan add profile filename="C:\WiFiProfiles\Wi-Fi-MySSID.xml"

Worked instantly.

Automating the Connection

I didn’t want to manually reconnect after every reboot. So I wrote a quick PowerShell script:

$SSID = "MySSID"
$Profile = "MySSID"
$adapter = Get-NetAdapter | Where-Object {$_.Name -like "Wi-Fi*" -and $_.Status -eq "Up"}

if ($adapter) {
    netsh wlan connect name=$Profile ssid=$SSID
} else {
    Write-Output "Wi-Fi adapter not enabled or not found."
}

Scheduled it to run at startup via Task Scheduler. Done.

Weird Bugs I Hit

• Fast Startup broke everything. Disabled it via Control Panel → Power Options.
• Group Policy blocked wireless. Had to dig into gpedit.msc and tweak Wireless Network Policies.
• Wi-Fi icon ghosted me. Fixed by manually starting WlanSvc.
• Driver mismatch. Realtek cards gave me more trouble than Intel. Just saying.

Bonus Tweaks

• Set Wi-Fi priority:

netsh wlan set profileorder name="SSID1" interface="Wi-Fi" priority=1

• Combined Ethernet + Wi-Fi by adjusting metrics:

Set-NetIPInterface -InterfaceAlias "Wi-Fi" -InterfaceMetric 50

• Bridged Wi-Fi to Hyper-V virtual switch. Not elegant, but it worked.

Final Thoughts

Wi-Fi on Windows Server isn’t plug-and-play. It’s more like plug-and-pray. But once you get past the initial mess—drivers, services, profiles—it’s stable enough for labs and light use.

I wouldn’t run production workloads over wireless, but for testing? Absolutely.

Ever tried this on a nested VM or with a USB Wi-Fi stick? Got a better way to automate the connection? Drop your setup—I’m always curious how others wrangle Windows Server into doing things it clearly wasn’t meant to do.