I just reinstalled Windows a week ago and noticed something strange: my VPN notifies me that it's connected three times! When I checked my network adapters, I found three instances of the same MediaTek Wi-Fi 7 Wireless LAN card listed: one without a number and two with numbers. It seems like I'm only connected through the third one, the one without a number. While everything is working fine and I only connect via Wi-Fi, I'm curious why three copies of essentially the same adapter are showing up. I do have split tunneling set up, and usually, my VPN creates a TAP adapter which I can manage. However, I can't disable or remove the top two Wi-Fi adapters, and they aren't visible in the device manager. Just to give you some background info: I'm using Windows 11 with Mullvad VPN, and this is a fresh install. Anyone know what's going on?
2 Answers
You mentioned it's a built-in Wi-Fi adapter on an ASUS board. It's important to ensure you're using the manufacturer's drivers instead of default ones from Windows. If you haven't already, try downloading the latest drivers directly from ASUS's website. Sometimes, having multiple drivers can happen during an automatic installation or if Windows updates install generic versions. Just try to install the correct one once more; it might clear up the confusion!
It sounds like your machine might be recognizing multiple drivers for the same built-in Wi-Fi adapter. When you reinstall Windows, it sometimes uses generic drivers, and if you've manually installed the correct ones, Windows could still be holding onto previous installations. You should check your device manager to see if those extra adapters show up there; if not, you may just be able to ignore them since they aren't causing any connection issues. It's not uncommon, but if it bothers you, removing the unused ones in the settings can help clear things up.
Yeah, it's likely just a quirk from the reinstall. If you haven't seen any performance problems, I wouldn't stress too much about it. But I get why it can be annoying to see extra drivers listed!
Thanks! I did get the drivers directly from ASUS, so that shouldn't be an issue. I guess I’ll just check for updates and see if it resolves the duplicates.