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Question
Thursday, April 28, 2016 1:38 PM
OK I work in education and we have several carts of laptops from Dell but also some other brands as well like Lenovo and Microsoft Surface devices. When I first started this job years ago there was a huge problem of students flipping the wireless switches on the laptops and disabling the WiFi so I set the BIOS setting to disable the switch. This was wonderful and literally cut our support calls and teacher complaints greatly. They started using the carts more and did not complain that technology never works as much.
Well fast forward to 2016 and we are deploying Windows 10 and it appears that on the computers we have with physical wireless switches will still put the computer in Airplane mode despite the switch being disabled in the BIOS.
Long story short I need a way to disable airplane mode on these laptop carts because despite sending out information showing the Airplane Mode Icon and pictures of what the wireless switch looks like I am back where I started years ago where constant calls and complaints of the few carts I have upgraded already. I honestly do not understand how a common feature like airplane mode that is found on every phone, tablet, or computer is so confusing..
In my searches I have found some that did it through registry but it seemed to be specific to the wifi card of the device and that is not very helpful in the long run. I was hoping some way to do it through GPO or a more universal registry setting.
Computers are running Windows 10 Enterprise.
All replies (21)
Wednesday, May 4, 2016 2:49 AM ✅Answered
Hi bwilkerson217,
"I guess this is something the teachers and students are going to have to learn."
I agree with you.
I have an idea for you. There should be an event recorded in the Event Viewer(Applications and Services\Microsoft\Windows\Wireless-Autoconfig) when the airplane mode is enabled. We could configure that event as a trigger to create a task schedule to send a message to the user.
For examle:
msg * "Airplane mode has been enabled, please press Fn + function to disable it".
I hope my clarification will be useful.
Best regards
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Friday, April 29, 2016 6:19 AM
Hi bwilkerson217,
What is the machine model you are using?
If it works before, I suspect there may be a compatible issue between the machine model and Windows 10. Please ensure the device manufacturer website has released the Windows 10 compatible drivers for your model machine.
As far as I know, the airplane is depended on the hardware. There is no gpo to configure it. The only possible registry to control this behavior is related to the device ID as you pointed out.
Here is an example:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\Class\4d36e972-e325-11ce-bfc1-08002be10318}\0002\Ndi\params\Radio\enum]
You`d better ask for help from the device manufacturer support. I am afraid we could do little on Microsoft side.
Best regards
Please remember to mark the replies as answers if they help, and unmark the answers if they provide no help. If you have feedback for TechNet Support, contact [email protected].
Friday, April 29, 2016 1:56 PM
The models that are used the most are Dell Latitude E5430 and E5440 model laptops. I have reached out to the manufacturer and they claim that this is a Windows 10 issue. I find that hard to believe too so I am stuck in the middle.
Both models are listed as supported by Dell when it comes to Windows 10 and I am using their latest drivers when I image them in SCCM.
I tried posting on their support forums many months ago when I first discovered it and the post is ignored.
I appreciate your response though. Just hoping for a little something to point me in the right direction.
Tuesday, May 3, 2016 7:05 AM
Hi bwilkerson217,
Have you tried the drivers from the Dell website?
Latitude E5430
http://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/19/product-support/product/latitude-e5430/drivers/advanced
Latitude E5440
http://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/04/product-support/product/latitude-e5440-laptop/drivers/advanced
I have tried to capture the corresponding configurations on my Windows 10 machine.
The airplane mode is corresponding to this registry key:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\RadioManagement\SystemRadioState]
The wifi configuration is related to the specific device ID(as I stated before), mine is located in:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\4d36e972-e325-11ce-bfc1-08002be10318}\0001]
I hope this will be useful.
Best regards
Please remember to mark the replies as answers if they help, and unmark the answers if they provide no help. If you have feedback for TechNet Support, contact [email protected].
Tuesday, May 3, 2016 1:03 PM
Hi bwilkerson217,
Have you tried the drivers from the Dell website?
Latitude E5430
http://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/19/product-support/product/latitude-e5430/drivers/advanced
Latitude E5440
http://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/04/product-support/product/latitude-e5440-laptop/drivers/advancedI have tried to capture the corresponding configurations on my Windows 10 machine.
The airplane mode is corresponding to this registry key:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\RadioManagement\SystemRadioState]
The wifi configuration is related to the specific device ID(as I stated before), mine is located in:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\4d36e972-e325-11ce-bfc1-08002be10318}\0001]
I hope this will be useful.
Best regards
Please remember to mark the replies as answers if they help, and unmark the answers if they provide no help. If you have feedback for TechNet Support, contact [email protected].
Yes I have tried using the latest drivers for both the airplane switch and wireless card. I even tried disabling that driver all together leaving the device uninstalled in device manager and while that works it seems the driver eventually gets installed anyway.
Oh well.. I guess this is something the teachers and students are going to have to learn. After all airplane mode is common amongst phones, tablets and computers so they should know how to locate and flip a switch or use the Fn + function key combo
Saturday, June 4, 2016 7:26 PM
Hi BWilk,
My laptop developed this airplane mode issue of not being able to turn it off. The switch under the network settings for the airplane mode bounces back to "on" after sliding it to the "off" position as soon as you let go.
I discovered that when I, (Step1) unplugged the power cord with laptop on still, used laptop network access (online) for a bit, then (Step2) shut it down unplugged. (Step3) plugged power cord in before starting up laptop, (Step4) started laptop, seems to activate the issue with the airplane mode on and no internet access. To get wireless internet access again, I simply, unplugged power cord while computer on still, then shut down. Started up laptop with power cord unplugged still, internet access came back. Still having issues with the airplane mode switch in the network settings.
Definitely seems like a driver and\or registry issue related to Windows 10 upgrade
My 2 cents
Wednesday, December 14, 2016 8:34 AM
OK I work in education and we have several carts of laptops from Dell but also some other brands as well like Lenovo and Microsoft Surface devices. When I first started this job years ago there was a huge problem of students flipping the wireless switches on the laptops and disabling the WiFi so I set the BIOS setting to disable the switch. This was wonderful and literally cut our support calls and teacher complaints greatly. They started using the carts more and did not complain that technology never works as much.
Well fast forward to 2016 and we are deploying Windows 10 and it appears that on the computers we have with physical wireless switches will still put the computer in Airplane mode despite the switch being disabled in the BIOS.
Long story short I need a way to disable airplane mode on these laptop carts because despite sending out information showing the Airplane Mode Icon and pictures of what the wireless switch looks like I am back where I started years ago where constant calls and complaints of the few carts I have upgraded already. I honestly do not understand how a common feature like airplane mode that is found on every phone, tablet, or computer is so confusing..
In my searches I have found some that did it through registry but it seemed to be specific to the wifi card of the device and that is not very helpful in the long run. I was hoping some way to do it through GPO or a more universal registry setting.
Computers are running Windows 10 Enterprise.
Totally the same boat as you, Educational establishment running Dell laptops and Airplane mode driving us mad with the OS not honoring the disabled switch setting. Worse still because we hide access to the WiFi configuration on the logon screen so the darlings don't mess around with those settings. People cannot tell if the device is in airplane mode or not!
Doesn't even help the registry settings are unique to each device and just changing registry keys isn't enough to turn off airplane mode.
I understand when people say they will have to learn that's all well and good but staff are still are not super confident with technology. The students use the tech as excuses for not completing work so any excuse or weakness is played upon!
Please Microsoft/Dell can somebody just look into this issue for us EDU sufferers and anyone running shared devices ..
Friday, February 17, 2017 5:00 PM | 1 vote
I found the only way to disable this feature in group policy is to remove the device from the device manager.
Only apply this to Win 10 Machines and TEST first!
In group policy go to:
Computer config --> Admin Templates --> System --> Device Installation --> Device Installation Restrictions
Prevent installation of devices using drivers that match these device IDs:
Click "Enabled"
Under Options:
Click "Show..."
To add Airplane Mode Switch Collection copy this: HID\VID_413C&UP:0001_U:000C
To add Airplane Mode Switch copy this: ACPI\VEN_DELL&DEV_ABCE
Check off "Also apply to matching devices that are already installed"
Manual Method:
Right click on airplane mode switch collection and click disable.
Good luck,
-Paul
Friday, February 17, 2017 5:18 PM
Similar solution to you, I added in my SCCM task sequence using Nirsoft Alternative to device manager of Windows. I used the following two commands to disable the devices on our affected laptops.
devmanview /disable "Airplane Mode Switch"
devmanview /disable "Airplane Mode Switch Collection"
Found this easier than identity all the various device keys for my different brands of laptops.
Looks to be the only way to work around this issue.
Thursday, March 30, 2017 10:06 AM | 4 votes
Hi bwilkerson217,
try it,
go to services.msc. find radio management service. disable it.
I hope this is useful.
Thursday, March 30, 2017 7:23 PM | 1 vote
This fix worked for me! Thanks for the post.
Sunday, September 3, 2017 3:27 AM
Rob Fuller's method worked for me on Dell Latitude E series laptops. "Airplane Mode Switch Collection" seemed to be the one making the difference. Also I had to use the 64-bit version of DevManView for the command to do anything, I'm sure that's because the OS is Windows 10 64-bit. What I'd really like to do is disable airplane mode entirely, software and hardware. Even when I disable the device which disables the hardware switch it's still possible to turn on airplane mode through one of the tiles. These computers are never going on airplanes, this feature is just a nuisance for me.
Thursday, September 28, 2017 1:57 PM
Did you find a solution to this? I am also in the education field and we are having the same issue. I disabled the Radio Management Service and that works but that also prevents users from selecting wireless networks at home. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Tuesday, December 19, 2017 9:10 AM
You're a lifesaver, after applying this on a Latitude E6530 on W10 Fall Creators Update it finally works. Needless to say I've been googling half of the day to find this solution. Thanks!
Friday, January 19, 2018 1:55 PM
yes this worked after all else failed
thankyou so much
Sunday, April 29, 2018 6:40 PM
Here is yet another solution.
I tried some of the solutions above. I had some success disabling or uninstalling Airplane Mode Switch in Device Manager -> Human Interface Devices, but once the computer was restarted, the switch driver would be installed and operational again (and the airplane mode switch would be working again).
I don't know how safe this solution is, but what I did was locate the driver, which was at C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\DellRbtn.sys, made a backup of the driver, and then made a new dummy file there called DellRbtn.sys. This new dummy driver does nothing, but that's the point.
Then I disabled Airplane Mode Switch once more in device manager and restarted the computer. I am permanently no longer able to use the switch to toggle airplane mode.
To locate your driver for Airplane Mode Switch, go to Device Manager -> Human Interface Devices -> Right Click Airplane Mode Switch -> Properties -> Driver -> Driver Details.
Friday, May 18, 2018 6:54 PM | 1 vote
I was expecting to have REGKEY or GPO setting to avoid users to be able to press F12 (unintentionally) on HP laptops and then turns on the 'Airplane mode".
Disable the 'Radio Management Service' will restrict users to change WIFI networks - so this is unaceptible.
Looking at the Device Manager here on 'HP G240 G6' we dont have the item 'Human Interface Devices -> "Airplane Mode Switch" or "Airplane Mode Switch Collection".
>> Is there some fix since the first post (Thursday, April 28, 2016 1:38 PM)???
The F12 key means 'Search' in our ERP.
Wednesday, July 24, 2019 8:25 PM
I also need a solution for this. You can't tell me there's no way of disabling something that didn't even exist in Windows 7.
Tuesday, September 17, 2019 3:41 PM
:) I like this. I did the same for malware, put a fake file with the same name.
Monday, February 17, 2020 11:53 PM
mrqq. lol. That was simple. I don't know why I didn't think of that but,...
I appreciate not having this issue arise any longer. Been dealing with it for some time. Thank you! Its the simple things in life.
Tony Monday
Friday, March 20, 2020 6:11 PM
Renaming the DellRbtn.sys to DellRbtn.sys and running wordpad as admin and saving an empty file as DellRbtn.sys was the only way I was able to re-enable the Wi-Fi interface on my laptop.
I am still not certain how it got turned off in the first place. My laptop has no switch. I did disconnect the power cube temporarily, maybe that triggered it somehow. But what is important is my laptop is working again. YEAH!