"Use Windows to manage my wireless connection"

[shug]

Okay, here's my problem. I have a customer who's using a Dell Latitude E4600 laptop. It's made for Vista, but you can order it in XP as well (I think, unless the customer installed XP himself, doubtful). The problem is that the wireless card relies on some important built-in services or drivers in Vista. I tried uninstalling/reinstalling the drivers for it, using drivers from the Dell page and also from the Dell driver backup on the hard drive (same thing), and it told me that the drivers were incompatible. After a reboot, they installed themselves. Weird.

However, the wireless connection will not work. In order to make it work without a full reinstall of Windows (or with a new wireless card), I'm attempting to create a batch file to have start up with Windows. There are three steps that I need:

1. Put the serial key in the registry pointing to the correct directory and name of the batch file (done).
2. Put script in the batch file to enable Wireless Zero Configuration (done).
3. Put script in the batch file to enable the "Use Windows to manage my wireless connection" check box that is in the advanced wireless settings in Windows XP.

The only step I have left is #3. I know that a lot of the above information was nearly irrelevant to this forum, but I'm hoping that you guys know something that I don't and know how to put this in a batch file. The reason that I need to use a script file to place in the startup items is because Wireless Zero Configuration will not start with Windows (yes, even if you go to services.msc, WZC, properties, and tell it to start automatically). Also, the tick box for "Use Windows to manage my wireless connection) will NOT stay ticked. I suspect this is because of some silly Dell software trying to manage the entire computer, but I have already removed the Dell ControlPoint Connection Manager (it was just silly and didn't even list anything about wireless connections). If I cannot get a batch file to work on his computer by Monday, then I suppose I will just try to uninstall Dell software and repair damaged .dll files (this has already happened, I removed D CP CM, and the Welcome screen and fast-user switching were disabled and greyed out in the control panel, the error message mentioned a .dll file that controls such things, but I didn't write it down). I would prefer the batch file, though.

I do not want to reinstall Windows on this client's computer, as he just came in for virus removal and a reinstall would be very expensive in addition to that... it would have been more cost-effective to buy a new laptop. Today is Saturday night (Sunday morning, really), and he's coming in Monday for the wireless issue.

Here's what I have so far:

In my batch file:

NET START "Wireless Zero Configuration"

This page seems to have the exact answer to my question, however, I do not want to enter a credit card number just to un-blur the answer:

http://www.experts-exchange.com/Programming/Languages/Visual_Basic/VB_Script/Q_24261046.html

I found this block of code which leads me to believe that the box I am referring to may be called or related to the WLAN Query Interface function:

_Wlan_SetInterface(-1, -1, 0, "Auto Config Enabled") ;Auto Config Enabled or Auto Config Disabled - Some 3rd party wifi managers will switch this setting off again if it wants control!
If @error Then ConsoleWrite("_Wlan_SetInterface1: " & $Error)
$QI = _Wlan_QueryInterface(-1, -1, 0) ;The "use Windows to configure my wireless network settings" checkbox - Needs to be enabled for many funtions to work
ConsoleWrite("Query Interface 0: " & $QI & @CRLF)
If @error Then ConsoleWrite("_Wlan_QueryInterface2: " & $Error)

... from this URL:

http://forums.speedguide.net/archive/index.php/t-267828.html

Thank you so much for your time! And if I'm an idiot and this isn't at all related to what this forum is for, please tell me right away.

[foxidrive]

I'd check here in the registry on a machine that has wireless enabled and compare it to the dud system.

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Services\WZCSVC]


I don't use wireless so can't help you there.

[shug]

Okay, just in case anyone else ever is scouring the Internet wondering how to fix a Dell WLAN 1397 on Windows XP on a Dell Latitude E4600 laptop, or just ever has this problem with silly Dell software controlling Windows processes even after removal:

This is what I did. To enable both the "use Windows to control my wireless configuration" check box under wireless settings and automatically start Wireless Zero Configuration (because it won't start automatically even when you tell it to), I found a utility that does both of these.

http://code.mincus.com/31/windows-wireless-api/

If you're running Windows Service Pack 3, you don't need to install anything that it says you need to. Just download the .zip, extract all files to C:\WINDOWS\system32, and then create a string value key in the registry.

Start -> Run -> regedit

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\ Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run

Right click, create string value. Name whatever you like.

Double click, and under "Value data:", enter (WITH QUOTES):

"C:\WINDOWS\System32\wifi_config.exe -enable"

In some instances, "-enable" may need to be outside of the quotes.

Anyway, doing this solved my issue and now Wireless Zero Config and 'Use Windows to manage my wireless connection" are both enabled upon startup.