Solved Windows 8 cannot access wireless properties or save pw.

Every time I sign into my windows 8 account at home it never automatically connects to it. I tried following the tutorial at http://www.jmu.edu/computing/desktop/wireless/wm_library/OfficialWireless-Windows8.pdf. However when I get up to the part where you are support to right click on the wifi connection to access view connection properties I am unable to. Right clicking on the wireless connection does absolutely nothing. I even tried clicking on it and holding and still nothing. When I go to the network and sharing center and click on the wireless connection it pops up a dialogue called wi-fi status. However there is no button for wireless properties. I remember in windows 7 there use to be a tab where you change the key encryption type and there was a check box where you can save the password. Essentially I can't access the dialog box in page 10 of the above link. I have spent numerous hours trying to figure this out. Any help greatly appreciated.

It sounds like your version of Windows 8 is missing something or maybe just some files are missing, hard to say why this problem would occur.

You might try running the sfc/scannow command to see if there are any missing files.

I ran sfc/scannow. Here is the output.

Beginning system scan. This process will take some time.


Beginning verification phase of system scan.
Verification 100% complete.


Windows Resource Protection did not find any integrity violations.

I did restarted my pc still the same issue.

I was able to determine that it was a permissions issue. In case anyone comes across the same issue I found a great post that helped me solve my issue. Wireless Network Will Not Connect Automatically On Boot - Microsoft Community

Johnnyp882 said:

I was able to determine that it was a permissions issue. In case anyone comes across the same issue I found a great post that helped me solve my issue. Wireless Network Will Not Connect Automatically On Boot - Microsoft Community

Click to expand...

You shouldn't need to mess with permissions if a Windows live account was used to sign in with in the first place, because by default this would give you Admin rights to the system.

If a Windows live account was used then somebody had to change the default level of access "Admin" in order for this problem to occur in the first place.

I was signed into a Windows Live Account and it is definitely an admin account. It's also the only account on this laptop too. When I went to the C:/.../ProgramData folder and went to the security tab I noticed for some reason that the administrators group was missing in that folder and all subfolders. I must have done something in the passed to have gotten it removed .

Johnnyp882 said:

I was signed into a Windows Live Account and it is definitely an admin account. It's also the only account on this laptop too. When I went to the C:/.../ProgramData folder and went to the security tab I noticed for some reason that the administrators group was missing in that folder and all subfolders. I must have done something in the passed to have gotten it removed .

Click to expand...

Thanks for letting me know about this problem, the fix for this may come in handy in the future.

I checked my programs data folder and my User name and Hotmail address is there by default with Admin access, then also my User name is there but without permissions for full control or modify, the System also has full access, then CREATOR OWNER is also listed but with no permissions.

You might want to check that all of your Apps still open up because sometimes when user permissions are changed it will prevent the Apps from opening.

For some reason CREATOR OWNER and SYSTEM was also missing. I added them manually and gave full permissions to SYSTEM. I restarted my laptop and it successfully auto connected to the wifi. I can also access wireless properties which I was unable to access previously. All the apps are also fully operational. Thanks for the help.

Johnnyp882 said:

For some reason CREATOR OWNER and SYSTEM was also missing. I added them manually and gave full permissions to SYSTEM. I restarted my laptop and it successfully auto connected to the wifi. I can also access wireless properties which I was unable to access previously. All the apps are also fully operational. Thanks for the help.

Click to expand...

Your quite Welcome for the help, thanks for posting the fix to this problem because it may come up again.

I posted the screen shot of the default permission entries just for clarification because I suspected that other User groups may have been corrupted.

Hi, I'm coming back to this thread, because I have almost the exact same problem. I have a wired connection, and Wifi available. I want to connect to a secure wireless network, but I have to change the settings. When I right-click on any wifi (I am in a university, and we have many SSID) there is NEVER any menu popping out. If I stay clicked on, after a while a small window comes up with info on the network (security: WEP Type : 802.11) and that's it. I'm logged with a hotmail account, I am admin, I tried with a local user, the pc is part of a domain. Logged in with the admin of the domain, NADA... I really need help.
Simon

Update. I think I cannot see the menu because I'm not connected to a network. Does it make sense ? But that's the problem. We have a secure wifi with a certificate. So when I connect, I put my user/pass, then I have a window that comes in the desktop (see screen cap) : Network security alert Windows can't verify the server's identity then a text and then connect or don't connect buttons. I click connect and either I have to restart (user/pass) or I have the message "Can't connect to this network"
I have another machine with 8 as well, logged in with a hotmail account, and the difference is that I don't have the "desktop" windows telling me that windows doesn't recognize the certificate, it's within the charm place, I clic connect, and I do connect ! The only difference is that it's a 32 bits version.