Network Reset Greyed Out in Windows 10/11 - Fix in 2 Steps

You're in Windows Settings, Network & Internet, and you click "Network reset" — but the button is greyed out. You can't click it. This happens most often after a bad Windows update (especially Windows 10 21H2 or later), or after you've tried to mess with network settings manually (like changing DNS or turning off IPv6). Sometimes it just happens for no reason, especially on Dell and HP laptops.

Why the button is greyed out

The network reset button in Windows needs certain system files to be in a healthy state. When those files get corrupted or partially locked, Windows disables the reset button. It's a safety measure — Windows won't let you reset something that's already broken in a weird way.

The real cause is usually one of two things:

Your TCP/IP stack (the way your computer talks to the network) is corrupted.
Windows Network Location Awareness service (NLA) is stuck or not running.

Don't bother with system restore or registry edits — those waste time. Here's the fix that works 9 out of 10 times.

The fix: two commands in Command Prompt

You don't need admin rights for this, but you should run Command Prompt as administrator anyway, just in case. The fix takes 30 seconds.

Press the Windows key on your keyboard. Type cmd. Right-click on "Command Prompt" in the search results and select "Run as administrator". Click "Yes" if Windows asks for permission.
In the black Command Prompt window, type or copy-paste this exact command and press Enter:
```
netsh int ip reset
```
You'll see a message like "Resetting Compartment Forwarding... OK!" — that's normal. Then it'll say "Restart the computer to complete this action." Don't restart yet.
Type this second command and press Enter:
```
netsh winsock reset
```
You'll see "Successfully reset the Winsock Catalog. You must restart the computer in order to complete the reset." Good, that's what we want.
Close the Command Prompt window. Restart your computer.

After restart: check the network reset button

Once your computer boots back up, go to Settings > Network & Internet > Network reset. The button should now be clickable. If it still isn't, don't panic — there's one more thing to check.

If it's still greyed out

The NLA service might be stuck. Here's how to fix it:

Press Windows key + R, type services.msc, and press Enter.
In the Services window, scroll down to "Network Location Awareness". Right-click it, select "Properties".

Make sure the "Startup type" is set to "Automatic" (not Manual, not Disabled). If it's not Automatic, change it. Click OK.
Right-click "Network Location Awareness" again and select "Start" (if it's already running, click "Restart").
Close Services. Go back to Settings. The network reset button should now work.

If both steps didn't fix it, you might have a deeper problem — like a faulty network driver or a Windows system file corruption. Try running sfc /scannow in Command Prompt (as admin). But honestly, these two steps fix the greyed-out button 95% of the time. Start with them.