▷ View and change mac address in windows 10

If we have a computer that is connected to an intranet, especially if it is within a network or virtual machines, surely it is important to know how to change different parameters of network elements. In another tutorial we already learned how to change the IP address of a computer. What we are going to do in this step by step is learn to see and change the MAC address in Windows 10 of the network card.

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There are interesting applications that use the MAC address of a computer directly, such as the Wake on LAN remote boot method. For this reason, if we have a series of networked equipment, we may need to modify their MAC addresses in order to identify them more directly.

What is the MAC address

The MAC or Media Access Control address is a unique identifier with which a networked device is physically identified by speaking. Each network card has an identifier of this type, in order to be physically identified in a network. It performs the DNI functions from the point of view of the network. If a network card did not have a MAC address it would be a device that did not exist on the network.

The MAC address is made up of a 48-bit cad , divided into 6 hexadecimal blocks, and allows the information to correctly reach a network hardware device.

We must be careful when making these changes, since they physically affect the configuration of our network card and we could be offline if we enter an incorrect MAC address. Although we should not worry either, since the changes are perfectly reversible.

How to see the MAC address in Windows 10

If we want to, it is to know the MAC address of our equipment, the easiest way to do it is by using the command " ipconfig ". To use it we must do the following:

• Press the key combination " Windows + R " to open the Run Tool. Inside it we write " cmd " or if we prefer " powershell "

• With any of the cases, the Windows system command window will appear. In it we will have to write " ipconfig / all " to list the network properties of our computer.

In the list of parameters we will have to identify an important aspect: If we have installed any virtualization software, it will have created virtual network adapters for its use. These do not interest us at first.

To identify which is the physical network adapter we will have to look for the name " Ethernet Ethernet Adapter " or if it is a Wi-Fi network card "Wi-Fi Wireless LAN Adapter ".

Once we know what it is, we should look at the line of " Physical Address ", here we will see a hexadecimal code string divided into 6 groups of two values. This is the MAC address of our network card.

Change MAC address in Windows 10

Even once we know what the MAC address is and what they look like, we are going to see how we can change it on our computer.

• Press the key combination " Windows + X " to open the options of the start menu. We can also right-click on the start button and this menu will appear. In this menu we must choose the option " Device Manager " and access it.

Once inside this window it will appear as a list with all the connected devices and belonging to our team. Our task will be to identify which or which are the network cards.

• At the top of the list we can see an icon of two network screens with the name " Network adapters ". We click to display your information

If we have virtualization applications, they will also appear in this list. We must identify the physical network card if it is the one that interests us. Normally it will come denoted by its brand and model or simply its brand.

• We double-click on our network card We go to the advanced options tab We look for the side list " Network Address " or in other cases " Locally Administered Address " and we mark the field " Value " on the right sideIn this way we can write the MAC address that we want the network card to have.

Then we accept the changes and the MAC address will have been changed.

To see if the changes have taken effect, we can go back to the Powershell command prompt and put " ipconfig / all " again

Change Mac address in Windows 10 with external applications

If we are not sure what MAC address we must put in order for it to be correct, we can also use an external application to make this procedure easier.

In our case we are going to use Technitium MAC Address Changer, which is free and can be downloaded from its website. Once we have downloaded and installed it, click on its TMAC icon to run it.

This program will list at its top all the network devices installed on our computer. Not only network cards, but also Bluetooth devices and virtual network cards of virtualization applications.

In principle, the one that will interest us is the one we use to connect. Which, as in the previous case, will be " Ethernet " or " Wi-Fi ". We click on the one that interests us and just at the bottom of the program we can see the section " Change MAC Address ".

What we can do is enter one ourselves if we know which one we want, or press the " Random MAC Address " button and the information will be filled in for us. An important detail is that just below a blank box appears, if we display the list we can select a range of MAC addresses from a specific manufacturer, for example, if our card is Intel, we will search for the manufacturer and the program will automatically assign us an address MAC from that manufacturer.

When we have the MAC address we want and everything is properly configured, we will give it " Change Now " to apply the changes.

If we want to go back and leave everything as it was, we will only have to click on the " Original Restore " button

These are the simplest ways to be able to change the MAC address in Windows 10 of our network cards.

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Why do you need to change your MAC address? If you have any concerns or want to point out something, you just have to write it in the comments.