How to Enable or Disable Energy Efficient Ethernet (EEE) in Windows 11

Option 1Use Device Manager

You can turn Energy Efficient Ethernet (EEE) on or off directly through Device Manager. This tool lets you adjust settings for your computer’s hardware, including your network adapter. Find your network adapter in the list, open its properties, and look for the Advanced tab to make changes to EEE.

1. Open Device Manager. You can search for it in the Windows 🔍 search bar.
2. Find and expand the Network adapters section.
3. Double-click on the network adapter you want to change. It might have a name like “Intel(R) Ethernet Connection” or “Marvell AQC111C”. You can also 🖱️ right-click on it and choose Properties.
4. Click on the Advanced tab.
5. In the list of properties, find and select Energy Efficient Ethernet. The name might be slightly different depending on your network adapter. It could also say “EEE”, “Green Ethernet”, or “Power Saving Mode”.
6. In the Value box, choose On or Enabled to turn it on, or Off or Disabled to turn it off.
7. Click OK to save your changes.
8. You can now close Device Manager.

Option 2Use PowerShell

For those comfortable with command lines, you can manage Energy Efficient Ethernet (EEE) using PowerShell. First, you’ll need to find the exact name of your network adapter by opening Network Connections. Then, open Windows Terminal as an administrator to run the commands that will enable or disable EEE.

1. First, you need to know the exact name of your network adapter. Open Network Connections by pressing Windows key + R, typing ncpa.cpl, and pressing Enter. Note down the name of the adapter you want to change (e.g., “Ethernet”).
2. Open Windows Terminal as an administrator. You can do this by searching for “Windows Terminal”, right-clicking it, and selecting “Run as administrator”. Make sure you have PowerShell selected in the terminal window.
3. To find the exact name of the EEE setting for your adapter, type the following command and press Enter. Replace Ethernet with the name of your network adapter from step 1:
   control netconnections
   
4. Look at the DisplayName column in the results. Find the exact name for Energy Efficient Ethernet. It might be listed as “Energy-Efficient Ethernet”, “EEE”, “Green Ethernet”, or “Power Saving Mode”.
5. Now, type one of the following commands and press Enter to turn EEE on or off.

   • To turn EEE on:
     Get-NetAdapterAdvancedProperty -Name "Ethernet" | Format-Table
     
   • To turn EEE off:
     Set-NetAdapterAdvancedProperty -Name "Ethernet" -DisplayName "Energy-Efficient Ethernet" -DisplayValue "Enabled"
     
6. Remember to replace Ethernet with your network adapter’s name and Energy-Efficient Ethernet with the exact EEE property name you found in step 4.
7. You can now close Windows Terminal.

Summary