Plagued by the constant disconnecting from the wifi whenever I wandered off for a few moments to do something in meatspace I had to find out what was going on.

Then I procrastinated.. and completely forgot about it.

Then it did it again so I started searching. Piecing together giblets of information from the internet I figured out Windows 8 likes to switch off power to the wifi adapter if the computer goes idle for long enough.

First bit: We’ll disable it in power management: Slide the mouse down to the bottom-right corner, then once your right-side navigation thing pops up go to the top ‘Search’ (ClassicShell: Press the Windows key In the text box at the bottom) type “Edit power plan” and click the result.

Change advanced settings. Open up the “Wireless Adapter Settings” then “Power Saving Mode” and make sure it doesn’t disconnect your wifi to save power by setting (at least AC, but I went with both because I live life on the edge). Switch it up to Maximum Performance which should stop it from disconnecting at random.

I say should, as it didn’t actually work very well for me. After a (longer, to be fair) while it disconnected again. As it turns out there’s another place to control a similar setting.

Second bit: Go into your network settings. Control panel again.. Mouse to the bottom-right, ‘Search’ again. This time type “Control panel” and click the result. From here we want “Network and Internet” and then “Network and Sharing Center” and from there “Change adapter settings” (It’s on the left hand menubar)

Right click your wifi adapter -> click Properties -> click Configure -> click Power Management

Uncheck the box “Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power”. That should do the job.

Worked so far, anyway..

Video instructions for Second bit