Disable wireless card when laptop is docked

You will have to let the users know to select the docked profile when in the office and to use the undocked profile outside the office.

In windows XP The profiles should already exist if you booted docked or undocked.  Just boot up docked disable wirelss card and reboot docked....

Then Boot up undocked and disable regaulr network card and enable wirelss.  Then reboot undocked again..

XP will automatically rem settings...

PUNKY:

this works very well. i didn't realize i could disable certain devices in the current profile through the device manager.

thx,

scott

Vee_Mod:

i believe that i did accept the first correct solution that was provided. none of the other solutions mentioned disabling the wireless card in the device manager for the current profile. that was the solution that worked for me.

scottspivey

vee_mod,

you are correct that post did include information about disabling the wireless card in the device manager, but it was directing me to create separate profiles or users to log in with, one or docked and one or undocked. the benefit to the solution that i accepted was that there was no need to create separate profiles and have to "let the users know to select the docked profile when in the office and to use the undocked profile outside the office" as was posted in the second, follow up post from briancassin.

the method that i accepted allows me to keep everything for my users the same and not have them inconvenienced with learning/remembering to choose the correct profile when they log in. this method is preferrable to me as a more practical way to address my issue.

scottspivey

So, do I still have points and good grade :o)

I am happy that asker likes my answer!  No matter points or not, it is already something have me good thing today. And that is all I wanted.

So I guess my question is when the laptop is undocked how is the wireless working then ? To my knowedge you have to have seperate profiles created to be able to have it undocked and docked as shown in the microsoft article above for automatically switching.

Unless you are manually going into device manager and disabling and enabling the device by selecting use and do not use which is not automatic!

From what you are explaining you asked for automatically which is exactly the answer you were given

The only exception would be if there is some special software with this laptop that is not part of a standard windows XP install

See screenshots here
http://www.online-tech-tips.com/computer-tips/how-to-conserve-your-laptops-battery-power/

Are you selecting under device usage to use and not use this hardware in the current profile if so this is not automatically between docked and undocked

Sorry I should clear that up "From what you are explaining you asked for automatically which is exactly the answer you were given" - the answer I gave was for handling it automatically

the answer that was accepted is not an automatic way! Your manually enabling and disabling the device there is no difference between that and going into device manager right clicking on a device and selecting disable that has the same affect.

The Dell Lat D630 (and series of it) will be set at once for all if using docking station NIC and disable wireless. When undock, the wireless will automatically connect to network, no need to set or edit anything. I think this is what asker wanted.

In fact, all Dell Dxx delivered to my company are set like that (I think that is default settings), no need to do anything. When dock, wireless will disable, and undock the wireless automatically connects.

Then that is a direct feature of dell and not part of Windows XP which means it is not available on all laptops

That's fine then, my point was under "normal" circumstances you ahve to create seperate profiles. This particular laptop has an extra feature built into it so it is not something that all laptops have the ability to do. Even looking through my MCDST books and I remember from the tests you had to create seperate profiles. But in this case the Dell laptop has an added feature to it which allows it to do this another way. Which now that I know that I understand and have no objections but initially it made no sense.

Right I understand it was on a Dell laptop no problem there I was not aware of this feature with them now it all makes sense.

Sorry for the confusion.

Briancassin,

The method you wrote is good one, and I hate to see thread like this disappear. It is good infor for future references.

Regards.

PUNKY - this one is now (again) in the EE database and will stay visible for any users.
VM

when i looked at the hardware profiles for my laptops there were in fact two profiles that were system generated. one had the properties set to "the docking state is unknown", the others properties were set to "the computer is docked." so when i have the computer docked and i go into the device manger and change the setting to not use the wireless card in the current profile the card is disabled when i dock my laptop and log on. when i am not docked the other profile (the docking state is unknown) takes over and the wireless card works. so that is an automatic switch that takes place without creating separate profiles. the profiles that i am utilizing are system generate.

the discussion about this being a "dell" specific feature, i believe, is inaccurate. this is not a feature of a dell wireless card, which is an intel card in this case, but a feature that is system generated in the hardware profiles of windows xp.

maybe this helps to clarify things a little.