How to Change MAC Address on Windows

Sometimes you want to change the MAC address of your network adapter. The MAC address (Media Access Contrp address) is a unique identifier used to identify your computer on the network. Changing the MAC address helps you diagnose network problems or change the name. Read Step 1 below to learn how to change the MAC address on Windows.

Table of Contents

Using Device Manager

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Open Device Manager. You can access Device Manager from the Contrp Panel. This option is in the System and Security section if you set the display to be by Category.

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Expand the Network Adapters section. In the Device Manager section, you will see a list of hardware installed on the computer. They are sorted by category. Expand the Network Adapters section to see the installed network adapters.

If you’re not sure which adapter you’re using, read Step 1 at the top of this article to find your device’s Description.

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Right click on the adapter. Select Properties from the menu to open the network adapter’s Properties window.

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Click on the Advanced tab. Look for the “Network Address” or “Locally Administered Address” category. Highlight and you’ll see the “Value” field on the right. Click on the radio button to enable the “Value” field.

Not all network adapters apply this method. If the above categories are not found, you must use one of the remaining methods in this article to change the MAC address.

Using Registry Editor

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Find the network adapter’s ID information. To easily identify the network adapter in the Windows Registry, you must gather basic information through the Command Prompt. You can open the Command Prompt by typing “cmd” into the Run dialog box (Windows key + R).

Type ipconfig /all and press Enter. Record the Description and Physical Address for the active device. Bypass inactive network devices (Media Disconnected).
Type the command net config rdr and press Enter. Note down the GUID displayed in the “{}” sign, next to the Physical Address you just wrote in the step above.

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Open Registry Editor. You can open the Registry Editor from the Run dialog (Windows key + R) and type “regedit”. This is the operation that opens the Registry Editor, which allows you to edit the network card settings.

If the registry changes are incorrect, the system may malfunction.

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Navigate to the registry key. Open HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentContrpSetContrpClass{4D36E972-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}. Expand by clicking on the arrow.

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Find the adapter. You will see several folders named “0000”, “0001”, etc. Open each folder and compare the DriverDesc field with the Description you recorded in the first step. Just to be sure, check the NetCfgInstanceID field to see if it matches the GUID from the start.

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Right click on the folder matching the device. For example, if the folder “0001” matches the device, right-click it. Choose New → String Value. Name the new value “NetworkAddress”.

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Double-click the Network Address category. In the “Value data” field, enter the MAC address. The MAC address is 12 characters long and contains no dashes or colons. For example, if you want to set the MAC address as “2A:1B:4C:3D:6E:5F”, enter “2A1B4C3D6E5F”..

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Make sure the MAC address is formatted correctly. Some adapters (especially Wi-Fi cards) do not allow changing the MAC address if the first half of the octet is not 2,6,A,E or starts with 0. This requirement applies to up to Windows XP and format as follows:

D2XXXXXXXXXX
D6XXXXXXXXXX
DAXXXXXXXXXX
DEXXXXXXXXXX

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Restart the computer to activate the change. You can disable and re-enable the adapter on Windows to apply changes without restarting the machine. If you just slide the Wi-Fi’s On/Off switch like on ThinkPads and VaiOs, you won’t be able to turn off/on the network card.

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Check if the change has been applied. After restarting the computer, you open the Command Prompt and enter ipconfig /all , then note down the Physical Address of the adapter. This is the new MAC address. ^{[1] X Research Source}

Advice

You can make the MAC address an interesting name because hexadecimal uses the letters A through F

Warning

Do not use a MAC address that is already in use, as it will prevent another device from connecting to the network.

Steps

Using Device Manager

Using Registry Editor

Advice

Warning

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