How to Fix Wireless Compatibility Errors in Windows 11
Honestly, dealing with that “wireless compatibility is turned off” error on Windows 11 can be super frustrating. I ran into this myself after a couple of Windows updates, and it took a bit of tinkering to get it sorted. So if your Wi-Fi just stopped working and you’re seeing some weird error about compatibility being turned off, here’s what finally worked for me—hope it helps you too.
Getting into the network settings—Control Panel style
First, I’d recommend opening the Control Panel—yeah, it feels like navigating old-school stuff, but it’s still reliable. You can do this one of two ways: either hit the Start menu (Windows icon) and type “Control Panel,” then click on the result. Or, press Win + R, type control and hit Enter. That’ll bring up the classic interface.
Once the Control Panel’s open, look for the top right corner—here, you’ll see a “View by” drop-down. Set that to “Large icons” or “Small icons” because that makes everything easier to find. Honestly, sometimes the default “Category” view makes stuff harder to locate, at least for me.
Click on “Network and Sharing Center.” From there, click on “Change adapter settings” on the left pane. That will show a list of network adapters—your Wi-Fi adapter should be right there. Right-click on your Wi-Fi connection and pick “Properties.”
This is where I got stuck at first, but then I found out to look at the “Configure” button. It’s usually right next to your adapter’s name. When it opens, go to the “Power Management” tab. You’ll see an option that says “Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power.” This checkbox being ticked is a common culprit — Windows sometimes turns off your Wi-Fi adapter in sleep mode or when idle to save power, and sometimes this causes weird compatibility errors.
My tip: Uncheck that box, then hit “OK”. Do this for any other network adapters if you see multiple. Also, I recommend double-checking that in Device Manager (you can get there by right-clicking the Start menu and choosing “Device Manager” or pressing Win + X and selecting it). Find your Wi-Fi device under “Network Adapters”, right-click, then go to “Properties”. Check out the “Driver” tab—consider updating the driver or rolling back to a previous version if it recently changed. And make sure the “Allow the computer to turn off this device” box is unchecked here too.
Check Windows 11 network settings—are they correct?
If messing with those adapter properties didn’t fix it, I moved on to Windows network settings. Sometimes the problem is just Windows not enabling Wi-Fi properly, or some profile misconfiguration. So I opened the Settings app from the Start menu, then went to “Network & Internet”.
Make sure Wi-Fi is turned on—that toggle should be active. If it’s off, switch it on. Sometimes toggling it off and then back on helps Windows reinitialize the network interface. Also, physically check if your laptop has a dedicated Wi-Fi switch (some models have tiny switches or sliders on the keyboard). If that’s off, no software fix can help until you flip it on.
Want to go even further? You can reset all your network settings via PowerShell (run as administrator). Just search for “Windows Terminal (Admin)” or “PowerShell (Admin)” in the Start menu. Then run these commands one at a time:
netsh winsock resetnetsh int ip reset
After running these, reboot your machine. Sometimes that’s what finally clears out whatever was blocking the Wi-Fi from working right.
Why are power management and hardware switches such a pain?
The power management setting is *usually* the main reason this happens. Windows tends to assume it needs to save power and might turn off your Wi-Fi card unexpectedly. By unchecking “Allow the computer to turn off this device“, it prevents Windows from messing with your Wi-Fi during sleep or idle times. Lesson learned: don’t ignore this checkbox if you’re troubleshooting Wi-Fi issues.
And don’t forget the hardware switch if your laptop has one. If it’s toggled off — even if Windows says Wi-Fi is enabled—it won’t work. Also, some OEMs have BIOS/UEFI settings that can disable Wi-Fi at the hardware level. Usually, you can get into BIOS by pressing a key like F2 or Del during startup. Look for options related to Wireless LAN or WLAN—if disabled there, it won’t matter what Windows settings you change.
My overall advice after struggling with this: double-check all those little things. Driver updates are vital too—grab the latest Wi-Fi driver directly from your laptop manufacturer’s site if possible. Sometimes, rolling back to an old driver version can fix compatibility bugs that pop up after Windows updates.
Hope this helped — it took way longer than I expected to figure out. But once I unchecked that power management setting and made sure the hardware switch was on, Wi-Fi finally stayed consistent. Good luck, and I hope you get it sorted faster than I did!