How Can I Remove Hyper-V Virtual Ethernet Adapter from Network Connections on Windows 10 Pro?

Question

I have just done a factory restore, and then installed all of the updates to make sure it's up to date and everything is fine and works. I removed what I deemed unnecessary and not crucial to the vital function of the system. In Control Panel>Network Connections, there are 2 objects, one is "vEthernet (Wi-Fi)", under it it says Enabled, and Hyper-V Virtual Ethernet Adapter and the other object says "Wi-Fi", under it it says my network name, then 802.11ac Wireless LAN Card". If I uninstall or disable the Hyper-V Virtual Ethernet Adapter, it will re-install or re-enable itself after restarting the computer. It wasn't always there, it showed up shortly after I factory restored and updated the computer with Windows Update. I uploaded a screenshot of Windows Features. The last time I asked someone (I actually made a thread about it on this site before, but can't find it) how to remove this object from Network Connections, they told me to uninstall "Hyper-v" in Windows Features. I have almost nothing on my computer, and next to nothing in Windows Features, and I can't figure out how to permanently remove Hyper-V Virtual Ethernet Adapter, because I haven't found a reason that I need it, and I haven't confirmed that it is necessary or crucial to the function of the system. If there is someone who knows something about this Virtual Ethernet Adapter that I don't, like why I should leave it alone, I'd appreciate your input. How can I permanently remove Hyper-V Virtual Ethernet Adapter? Thanks for your help.

edit: I disabled something in Services called "Hv Host Service" and don't see Hyper-V in Network Connections

Answer 1

Hi,

Thank you for your visit!

Based on your screenshots, I noticed that you have installed Windows sandbox or may be your computer version is Windows 10 Pro, Enterprise or Education build 18305 or later (Windows Sandbox is currently not supported on Home SKUs). These versions automatically install sandbox for your computer.

The sandbox automatically setup a virtual network adapter for your physical NIC. The default value of sandbox network configuration enables networking by creating a virtual switch on the host and connects the sandbox to it via a virtual NIC. So, the sandbox service is the reason for your issue.

You can learn more about sandbox and virtual network adapter before you finally decide to disable Windows sandbox service to uninstall your virtual network adapter:

Sandbox:
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/security/threat-protection/windows-sandbox/windows-sandbox-overview

Virtual network adapter:
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/virtualization/hyper-v-virtual-switch/hyper-v-virtual-switch

If you want to disable virual network adapter, you can use the guidance:
Sandbox configuration:
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/security/threat-protection/windows-sandbox/windows-sandbox-configure-using-wsb-file

Thank you for your time!

Best regards
Joan

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