How to Enable or Disable Mobile Hotspot in Windows 11

Option 1Use Local Group Policy Editor (🪟 Windows 11 Pro, Enterprise, or Education)

It is included in Windows 11 Pro, Enterprise, and Education. It is not included in Windows 11 Home, so if you can’t find it, use the Registry method further down instead.

You will open the editor from the Run box, go to the network policies, and change one policy setting.

1. Press Win + R on your keyboard to open the Run box. A small window appears at the bottom-left of the screen.
2. Type gpedit.msc and press Enter. The Local Group Policy Editor opens. If Windows says it can’t find the file, you are probably on Home edition.
3. In the left sidebar, expand each folder in turn and go to:
   
   Computer Configuration › Administrative Templates › Windows Components › Network › Network Connections
   
4. In the right pane, find Prohibit use of Internet Connection Sharing on your DNS domain network and double-click it. A settings window for that policy opens.

Now choose the option that matches what you want.

To Enable Mobile Hotspot (Default Setting):

1. Select Not Configured. This is the default, and it leaves hotspot sharing available.
2. Click OK.

To Disable Mobile Hotspot:

1. Select Enabled. This turns the prohibition on, so sharing is blocked.
2. Click OK.

The policy window closes when you click OK. You can then close the Local Group Policy Editor. If the change doesn't take effect right away, restart the PC. To check the result, open Settings, go to Network & internet, and look at the Mobile hotspot page.

To undo the change, open the same policy again and switch it back to Not Configured.

Example screenshot:

Option 2Use Registry Editor (All Windows Versions)

If your edition of Windows doesn't have the Local Group Policy Editor (Windows 11 Home, for example), you can make the same change in the Windows Registry. Sign in with an administrator account first.

A backup lets you restore the previous state if something goes wrong. Restart the PC after you finish so the change is applied.

To Enable Mobile Hotspot (Default Setting)

reg delete "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Network Connections" /v NC_ShowSharedAccessUI /f

To Disable Mobile Hotspot

You can turn off the Windows 11 mobile hotspot feature on any edition of Windows 11 by using the Registry Editor. This involves opening Notepad, copying a specific code to disable the hotspot, saving it as a .reg file, and then running that file to apply the change.

1. Open Notepad.
2. Copy and paste the code for enabling or disabling above into Notepad.
3. Save the file with a .reg extension, for example, mobile_hotspot_enable.reg or mobile_hotspot_disable.reg.
4. Double-click the saved file and confirm any prompts to add the information to your Registry.
5. Restart your PC to apply the changes.

Summary

• You can turn on or off the mobile hotspot feature in Windows 11 using two main ways: the Local Group Policy Editor or the Registry Editor.
• The Local Group Policy Editor method works only on Windows 11 Pro, Enterprise, or Education.
• The Registry Editor method works on all Windows 11 editions.
• Make sure you're an administrator to make these changes.
• Always back up your Registry before making any changes to avoid problems.
• Sharing your internet is useful, but be careful if you use cellular data since it can use up your data plan quickly.

Windows 11 mobile hotspot controls are managed differently depending on your system version. You can use the Local Group Policy Editor on Pro, Enterprise, and Education editions, or the Registry Editor on all versions, provided you have administrator permissions and back up your system first.