How to Permanently Disable Airplane Mode on Windows 10

Last Updated: January 18, 2023 Tested

Airplane Mode is a feature that allows you to disable all wireless communication on a device.^{[1]
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Microsoft Support
Technical support and product information from Microsoft.
Go to source} It can be useful if you are using a laptop on an airplane, but it can cause issues in other situations. While you can disable it in settings, it can be turned back on accidentally by users, or a bug may enable it. But, if you are an administrator, then it can be permanently disabled so that it cannot be turned back on. This article will show you how.

The steps in this article work on Windows 11 as well.

Things You Should Know

Press ⊞ Win+R and type cmd into the box that pops up.
Hit Ctrl+⇧ Shift+↵ Enter together. Then, click Yes.
Type SC CONFIG RmSvc START= DISABLED in the Command Prompt window and press ↵ Enter.

Steps

1
Press ⊞ Win+R.
2
Type cmd into the box that comes up. Do not click OK.

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3
Press Ctrl+⇧ Shift+↵ Enter at the same time.
4
Click Yes on the UAC dialog that comes up.
- If you do not have administrator permissions, then you cannot do this.
5
Type the following command inside of the Command Prompt window: SC CONFIG RmSvc START= DISABLED
6
Press ↵ Enter. The command prompt should then report that it was successful.
7
Restart your computer. Click Start
, Power
, and then "Restart". This will apply the changes.

Community Q&A

Question

It says access denied, how do I fix that?

R2_d2000

Top Answerer

You need to make sure that you are running Command Prompt as an administrator. To do that, make sure you press Ctrl + Shift + Enter after you type it into the run box. You can also type "cmd" into the search bar on start, and then right click command prompt and click "Run as administrator".
Question

Will this completely turn off the Wi-Fi or the internet? I need to disable this function all together.

R2_d2000

Top Answerer

No, this will do the opposite of what you want to do. To disable Wi-Fi, follow the steps in How to Enable Airplane Mode in Windows 10. To disconnect a wired connection, then pull the Ethernet cable out of the back of the computer.
Question

How do I reverse this?

R2_d2000

Top Answerer

To reverse this, open the search bar and type "Services", then open the services app. Then scroll down to the "Radio Management Service". Right click it and select Properties. Then change the startup type to "Automatic" and click Start. This will reenable Airplane mode. You may need to restart your computer.