How to Permanently Disable Airplane Mode on Windows 10

Airplane Mode is a feature that allows you to disable all wireless communication on a device.[1] It can be useful if you are using a laptop on an airplane, but it can cause issues in other situations. While you can disable it in settings, it can be turned back on accidentally by users, or a bug may enable it. But, if you are an administrator, then it can be permanently disabled so that it cannot be turned back on. This article will show you how.

The steps in this article work on Windows 11 as well.

Steps

  1. Image titled Permanently Disable Airplane Mode on Windows 10 Step 1
    1
    Press ⊞ Win+R.
  2. Image titled Open the Command Prompt in Windows Step 5
    2
    Type cmd into the box that comes up.
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  3. Image titled Permanently Disable Airplane Mode on Windows 10 Step 3
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    Press Ctrl+⇧ Shift+↵ Enter at the same time.
  4. Image titled Permanently Disable Airplane Mode on Windows 10 Step 4
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    Click Yes on the UAC dialog that comes up.
    • If you do not have administrator permissions, then you cannot do this.
  5. Image titled Permanently Disable Airplane Mode on Windows 10 Step 5
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    Type the following command inside of the Command Prompt window: SC CONFIG RmSvc START= DISABLED
  6. Image titled Permanently Disable Airplane Mode on Windows 10 Step 6
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    Press ↵ Enter. The command prompt should then report that it was successful.
  7. Image titled Permanently Disable Airplane Mode on Windows 10 Step 7
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    Restart your computer. Click Start
    Image titled Windowsstart.png
    , Power
    Image titled Windowspower.png
    , and then "Restart". This will apply the changes.
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Community Q&A

  • Question
    It says access denied, how do I fix that?
    R2_d2000
    R2_d2000
    Top Answerer
    You need to make sure that you are running Command Prompt as an administrator. To do that, make sure you press Ctrl + Shift + Enter after you type it into the run box. You can also type "cmd" into the search bar on start, and then right click command prompt and click "Run as administrator".
  • Question
    Will this completely turn off the Wi-Fi or the internet? I need to disable this function all together.
    R2_d2000
    R2_d2000
    Top Answerer
    No, this will do the opposite of what you want to do. To disable Wi-Fi, follow the steps in How to Enable Airplane Mode in Windows 10. To disconnect a wired connection, then pull the Ethernet cable out of the back of the computer.

Warnings

  • On Windows 11, the Wi-Fi icon will disappear from the taskbar if you do this. You will still be able to connect to a Wi-Fi network though.
    Thanks!
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Things You'll Need

  • Windows 10 or 11 Computer
  • Administrator permissions

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References

  1. ↑ https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4027421/windows-turn-airplane-mode-on-or-off
  2. https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/permanently-disabling-airplane-mode-windows-10/fe15a04d-6655-40db-ba61-428aa06dace8

About This Article

Tested by:
wikiHow Technology Team
wikiHow is a “wiki,” similar to Wikipedia, which means that many of our articles are co-written by multiple authors. To create this article, volunteer authors worked to edit and improve it over time. This article has been viewed 21,995 times.
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Co-authors: 5
Updated: November 25, 2021
Views: 21,995
Categories: Windows 10
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