How to: get direct access to network adaptors in Vista

Someone had some well-intentioned thoughts behind Vista’s Network and Sharing Center, which is supposed to offer everything network-related into one spot.

Fact is, though, it’s just a roadblock for advanced users.

Personally, I loved the ability in XP to jump straight to the Network Connections window and modify the properties of installed network adaptors – having to navigate through several windows in Vista is a waste of time.

The Network Connections dialogue window still exists, though, and there’s a way to navigate straight to it.

Create a new shortcut on the desktop (right-click, New, Shortcut). When prompted to type in the location, copy and paste the following line:

explorer.exe ::{7007ACC7-3202-11D1-AAD2-00805FC1270E}

Note the space after explorer.exe and the two colons.

Network Connections

The numerical string is an identifier which maps to several areas of the registry:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{7007ACC7-3202-11D1-AAD2-00805FC1270E}
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\NetworkConnections\CLSID
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\CLSID\{7007ACC7-3202-11D1-AAD2-00805FC1270E}
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\NetworkConnections\CLSID
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Shell Extensions\Approved

Click Next to continue, and name the shortcut Network Connections. Double-click the new icon and you’re launched straight into the Network Connections folder. Although every machine will have different network adapters with different hardware class IDs, the ID used here points to the location rather than to any specific hardware devices, so it will work on any Vista-based machine.

The icon which the shortcut uses is pulled by default from the icon pool embedded in explorer.exe, as that’s the command used to launch it. If you want the proper icon, right-click the icon and select Properties, and then Change Icon. Navigate to %SYSTEMROOT%\System32\ netshell.dll, which contains loads of network-based icons.