After upgrading our Enterprise laptops to Windows 11, the network/Wi-Fi button no longer appears in the bottom-right corner of the sign-in screen. Only the Accessibility and Power buttons are available, which prevents users from connecting to wireless before signing in and is causing deployment problems. Has anyone found what controls this behavior or how to restore the network selection option?
3 Answers
I have seen similar behavior during Windows deployments and initially assumed it was the normal Windows 11 sign-in experience. The Group Policy setting is the first thing to verify, but if it is already disabled, review the applied policy results and the enterprise Wi-Fi profile to determine whether the device is already connected before logon.
It may not actually be missing because the laptop could already be connected to the enterprise wireless network. In that case, Windows may be waiting for the user to sign in and complete the organization’s authentication process. Check which Wi-Fi profiles and authentication settings are being deployed to the devices.
This is commonly controlled by Group Policy. Check Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > System > Logon > Do not display network selection UI. Set it to Disabled or Not Configured, then refresh policy and restart the machine to test whether the network icon returns.
That setting was already Disabled, and changing it to Not Configured did not bring the option back, so there may be another policy or wireless configuration involved.