Windows 10 includes the ability to edit the physical address (MAC) for your network adapters. Find out how to do it and why you would want to.

Click on Add to Chrome and then click Add Extension on the dialog box that comes up. When the plugin in installed, you can find it on the top right corner on your Chrome, just as shown here. Then, make sure that your Chromecast is turned on, and your Computer and the Chromecast are on the same WiFi Network.

As we’ve explained in our article on how to find your MAC address, a MAC address serves as a permanent, physical identifier for any device that connects to a network. That includes your phone, your router, your computer, your printer, your Apple TV, anything that connects to your internet. If your computer has an Ethernet port and a WiFi adapter, you have two MAC addresses: one for Ethernet and one for wireless.

MAC addresses are useful for identifying devices on a network. For home users, you might use MAC filtering to restrict access to your WiFi network. The reason that a MAC address works better for these administrative tasks is that, unlike IP addresses, the MAC address doesn’t change.

Or at least it’s not supposed to.

The MAC address is “burned-in” to the physical device at the factory. But it’s fairly simple to change your MAC address by “spoofing” it as another MAC address.

Why would you want to do this?

MAC spoofing can be used maliciously to circumvent network controls, but it’s really only effective for blacklists—that is if someone specifically blocked your device from the network. For whitelists, you’d have to know the MAC address of a specific device you’re trying to spoof.

Changing your MAC address has legitimate uses as well. You can use it to test your own MAC filtering settings. Or you can use it to assign specific rules to a set of devices within a certain MAC address range.

At any rate, the fact that you’ve read this far means you probably have a vested interest in changing your MAC address. So, without further ado, here’s how to do it.

Edit Your Network Adapters MAC Address to Bypass Network Restrictions in Windows 10

Press Windows key + X on your keyboard then click Device Manager. Expand Network adapters, right-click your Ethernet or Wireless adapter then click Properties.

Select the Advanced tab. Within the Property box, scroll down then select Locally Administered Address then select the Value radio box; there you will see your adapters MAC address. To edit the address, click in the value box then clear its contents then enter a new address. A Mac address consists of six pairs of hexadecimal digits. Enter a new set without the hyphens, click OK then restart your computer.

Did it work? Let’s find out.

To confirm the change, open Start, type: CMD, right-click CMD then click Run as administrator.

At the command prompt, type: ipconfig/all then hit Enter to check the physical address.

You can also open Start > Settings > Network & Internet, click the connection name then scroll down to view the Physical address (MAC).

It doesn’t get any easier than that. Drop a line in the comments and let us know what you think.

Topics Map > Windows
Topics Map > Mac

You can customize Google Chrome to open any page for the homepage or startup page. These two pages aren't the same unless you set them to be.

• Your startup page is the one that shows when you first launch Chrome on your computer.
• Your homepage is the one you go to when you click Home.

If your startup page, homepage, or search engine has suddenly changed, then you may have some unwanted software.

Set your startup page

You can tell Chrome to open to a new tab page.

1. On your computer, open Chrome.
2. At the top right, click More .
3. Click Settings. (If you're using a Chromebook, click 'Show advanced settings' at the bottom of the page.)
4. Under 'On startup,' select Open the New Tab page.

By default, the new tab page shows Google's logo, a search bar, and thumbnails of your most visited sites. You can choose a fun themefor your new tab page instead, though.

You can tell Chrome to re-open the same pages you were looking at when you quit.

1. On your computer, open Chrome.
2. At the top right, click More .
3. Click Settings. (If you're using a Chromebook, click 'Show advanced settings' at the bottom of the page.)
4. Under 'On startup,' select Continue where you left off.

Your cookies and data are saved, so any websites you were logged into before (like Gmail, for example) will open again. If you don't want to be automatically signed in to these pages, follow the steps below:

1. On your computer, open Chrome.
2. At the top right, click More .
3. Click Settings.
4. At the bottom of the page, click Show advanced settings.
5. Under the section 'Privacy,' click Content settings.
6. In the dialog that appears, under the section 'Cookies,' choose Keep local data only until you quit your browser.
7. Click Done.

Note: If you're on a Chromebook, your tabs won't restore when you close and reopen the Chrome browser. To continue where you left off, restart your Chromebook.
Open a specific set of pages

You can tell Chrome to open to any webpage.

1. On your computer, open Chrome.
2. At the top right, click More .
3. Click Settings. (If you're using a Chromebook, click 'Show advanced settings' at the bottom of the page.)
4. Under 'On startup,' click Open a specific page or set of pages.
5. Click Set pages.
6. Enter the web address of the page you want to see when you open Chrome.
7. Click OK.

Problems with your startup or homepage

You can control what page appears when you click in the top left of your screen the Home button.

1. On your computer, open Chrome.
2. At the top right, click More .
3. Select Settings.
4. Under 'Appearance,' check the box Show Home button.
5. Below 'Show Home button,' click Change to choose your homepage.

The Home button will appear to the left of your address bar.

If you have any questions, come by the Help Desk at Hardman & Jacobs Undergraduate Learning Center Room 105, call 646-1840, or email us at help@nmsu.edu.