Windows 10 random MAC address ethernet

All network interfaces available in a Windows computer such as WiFi or Ethernet port  have a fixed MAC address (media access control) associated with them. MAC address is a set of six hexadecimal numbers (such as 2A:A7:1F:B7:AA:F4) and is used to identify your computer over a network. If you access public WiFi networks such as the WiFi on airports, restaurants or coffee-shops, then you can easily be tracked (the same MAC address present in all the locations).

Fortunately, Windows allows you to spoof the MAC address of your network interfaces albeit it has to be done through making changes to the registry. In Windows 10 version 1803, there was a setting that allowed you to randomize the MAC address for WiFi network interfaces, but Microsoft removed it in later versions.

Using our free tool Random MAC Address, you can easily and quickly change the MAC address of any network interface in your Windows computer to a randomly generated MAC address. By changing the MAC address, you can spoof your network identity and prevent public WiFi networks to track you.

In the small window of Random MAC Address, you can select one of the network interfaces from the list for which you want to set a random MAC address. Next, you can click on the Generate Random to make a new random hardware address. You can keep clicking on this button to create newer random addresses.

Finally, you can click on the Change button to assign the random address to the selected network interface. If you want to remove this random network address, then you can select a network interface and click on the Restore button. You are shown an information message after successfully changing or restoring the MAC address.

After this, you have to either restart Windows or disable the network interface in question and re-enable it once again. This can be done from “Network Adapters” section of Windows Control Panel. Random MAC Address automatically opens the required Control Panel section for you.

You can download Random MAC Address from https://www.trishtech.com/downloads/random-mac-address.zip

Windows 10 includes the ability to edit the physical address (MAC) for your network adapters. Find out how to do it and why you would want to.

As we’ve explained in our article on how to find your MAC address, a MAC address serves as a permanent, physical identifier for any device that connects to a network. That includes your phone, router, computer, printer, Apple TV, and anything that connects to your internet. If your computer has an Ethernet port and a WiFi adapter, you have two MAC addresses: one for Ethernet and one for wireless.

MAC addresses are useful for identifying devices on a network. For home users, you might use MAC filtering to restrict access to your Wi-Fi network.  A MAC address works better for these administrative tasks because, unlike IP addresses, the MAC address doesn’t change.

Or at least it’s not supposed to.

The MAC address is “burned-in” to the physical device at the factory. But it’s fairly simple to change your MAC address by “spoofing” it as another MAC address.

Why would you want to do this?

MAC spoofing can be used maliciously to circumvent network controls, but it’s really only effective for blacklists—that is, if someone specifically blocked your device from the network. For whitelists, you’d have to know the MAC address of a specific device you’re trying to spoof.

Changing your MAC address has legitimate uses as well. You can use it to test your own MAC filtering settings. Or you can use it to assign specific rules to a set of devices within a certain MAC address range.

At any rate, the fact that you’ve read this far means you probably have a vested interest in changing your MAC address. So, without further ado, here’s how to do it.

Edit Your Network Adapters MAC Address to Bypass Network Restrictions in Windows 10

Press Windows key + X on your keyboard, then click Device Manager. Expand Network adapters, right-click your Ethernet or Wireless adapter, then click Properties.

Select the Advanced tab. Within the Property box, scroll down, select Locally Administered Address, and select the Value radio box; there, you will see your adapters MAC address. Click in the Value box, clear its contents, and enter a new address to edit the address. A Mac address consists of six pairs of hexadecimal digits. Enter a new set without the hyphens, click OK, then restart your computer.

Did it work? Let’s find out.

To confirm the change, open Start, type: CMD, right-click CMD, then click Run as administrator.

At the command prompt, type: ipconfig/all, then hit Enter to check the physical address.

You can also open Start > Settings > Network & Internet, click the connection name, then scroll down to view the Physical address (MAC).

It doesn’t get any easier than that. Drop a line in the comments and let us know what you think.