Sunday, September 2, 2012

Cannot rename this connection. A connection with the name you specified already exists

If you replace a network card or move it to a different slot, the old one does not get deleted it only becomes a hidden device. This can happen also if you remove a network adapter from a virtual machine. So if you try to rename a connection to the name of that hidden one you will get this error message:


Error Renaming Connection
Cannot rename this connection. A connection with the name you specified already exists. Specify a different name.

To delete the hidden NIC, launch a command prompt and set this environment variable

set devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices=1

then run the device manager devmgmt.msc


From the view menu, check: Show hidden devices



under the network adapters, you will find more devices have appeared, remove the old NIC but DO NOT delete the driver unless you are sure you do not need it.

Now you can rename the connection.

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