Public to Private Network in Windows 8 – 2012R2

In Windows 8, when you connect to a wireless network, it will either register it as a Public network or a Private network. Private networks are basically home and work whereas public is anywhere else. Sometimes Windows 8 or Windows Server detects a private network as a public one and vice versa. You can manually make some changes to ensure that you are not accidentally sharing either too much on a public network or blocking all sharing on a private network.

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Then click on Network List Manager Policies at the left and on the right-hand side you should see a couple of items with descriptions and then something called Network, which is the current network you are connected to. It may also be called something else, but it doesn’t have a description.

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Double-click on it and click on the Network Location tab. Here you can manually change the network location from Private to Public and vice versa.

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