Introduced since SCCM 2012 R2, SCCM Wifi profiles are used to send Wifi configurations to clients. It can be useful if your company is not using certificates or any automated authentication methods. A smaller organization that uses a simple WPA2 setup can use SCCM Wifi profiles to send Wifi SSID and password so that the computers connect automatically to that network.

You can also use Wifi profile to manage mobile devices with Intune but we won’t cover this scenario in this post.

The major drawback of the SCCM Wifi Profile is that it’s impossible to enter the Wifi password using the console UI. (Even in the newest versions). We will show you how to deploy Wifi profiles on a Windows 10 or Windows 8.1 computer, including the Wifi password using an XML file.

SCCM Wifi Profiles

How to deploy SCCM Wifi Profiles with password to Windows 10 devices

Since it’s not possible to enter a password in the SCCM console, we’ll create an XML file and use it to create an SCCM Wifi profile based on this file.

The first step is to connect on a Windows 10 computer and connect to the desired Wifi network manually. You can disconnect once done, it’s only important to connect to the network at least once.

  • Open a PowerShell window and enter the following command to list all Wifi profiles on the computer :

netsh wlan show profiles

  • Enter the following command to create the XML file : (replace the name of your network and location you want the file to be created)

netsh wlan export profile name=”SCD” key=clear folder=c:\temp

SCCM Wifi Profiles
  • Using any text editor, you can see the Wifi information including the WPA2 pre-shared key
SCCM Wifi Profiles
  • We are now ready to create the Wifi profile in the SCCM console using this XML file
  • Open the SCCM console
  • Go to Assets and Compliance / Compliance Settings / Company Resource Access / Wi-Fi Profiles
  • Right-click Wi-Fi Profiles and select Create Wi-Fi Profile
SCCM Wifi Profiles
  • On the General pane, enter a Name and Description
  • Check the box Import an existing Wi-Fi profile item from a file, click Next
SCCM Wifi Profiles
  • On the Import Wi-fi Profile pane, click Add
SCCM Wifi Profiles
  • Browse to the location where you saved the XML file created in the first step of this post, click Open
SCCM Wifi Profiles
  • Validate the file, click Next
SCCM Wifi Profiles
  • On the Supported Platforms pane, select All Windows 8.1 (64-bits), All Windows 8.1 (32-bits), All Windows 10 (64-bits) and All Windows 10 (32-bits), click Next
  • On the Summary pane, review your settings and click Next
SCCM Wifi Profiles
  • Wait for the wizard to complete and click Close

Deploy the Wifi Profiles

You are now ready to deploy the profile to your devices

  • Open the SCCM console
  • Go to Assets and Compliance / Compliance Settings / Company Resource Access / Wi-Fi Profiles
  • Right-click the profile and select Deploy
SCCM Wifi Profiles
  • Click Browse and select your collection
  • Specify the evaluation schedule, click Ok

Monitor the deployment

Like every deployment, you can monitor the status in the SCCM Console under Monitoring / Deployments

SCCM Wifi Profiles

You may notice that the Wifi Profiles deployments are treated as they were Configuration Items.

Once successfully deployed, the computers receiving the Wifi Profile will automatically connect to the specified network.

Delete SCCM Wifi Profile

A generic failure error 0x80041001 when deploying your SCCM wifi profile is usually caused because you already have a profile with the same name on the computer. SCCM can’t overide or delete an existing wifi profile.

In such case, we suggest to create a collection with the systems that gives an error and deploy a script to delete the wifi profile and starts an evaluation of the WiFi profile baseline you just created. To delete the wifi profile on a Windows 10 computer, use this command :

netsh wlan delete profile name=”network-name”

The simpliest way to send this command would be to use the script function in the SCCM console.

Comments (10)

farid

08.26.2019 AT 11:09 PM
my enviroment, we deploy wifi via gpo. start up script

Dirk

07.11.2019 AT 12:50 AM
Can you Describe how i can create an WiFi Profil for WPA2 Enterprise.

Tariq

05.09.2019 AT 07:47 AM
I have done it in my Windows 10 image through a task sequence and also used the condition where the task sequence will only run if it's a laptop. But, some of my desktops have WiFi as well what condition should I use in my task sequence to run it when it detects of a WiFi card is existing. Can you help please? Thanks

Brandon Hilgeman

07.09.2019 AT 09:37 AM
In my environment, I took the condition for laptops off the step and let it run for everyone but checked Continue On Error.

Strensnik

05.23.2017 AT 09:26 AM
This is great stuff. Thank you. Is there anyway to get this into a Task Sequence?

PageyUK

10.28.2016 AT 04:45 AM
I am having a nightmare with this. Wifi Profile deployed and is compliant on some machines according to SCCM, but it took hours to apply despite running client actions numerous times + reboots. Devices still don't see the Wifi network though and it isn't listed from netsh wlan show profiles or netsh wlan show all I can see an XML file referencing it on a client in the CCM\CIDownloader folder. I'm stumped and don't want to result to deploying as a .BAT file with the command in it as an application. Any advice?

unk

08.24.2016 AT 07:52 PM
win 7 unsupported jackassersy

Mike

05.11.2016 AT 10:04 AM
Does that also work with Windows 10 Mobile and Windows 8.1 Phone? I am not able to get that to work with SCCM 1602! Thanks

JPBreton

01.13.2016 AT 10:05 PM
Very nice post Mr Benoit!!

Benoit Lecours

01.22.2016 AT 09:17 AM
Thank Mr.MVP