PC refuses to automatically connect to wireless network

I travel frequently with my Windows 7 Ultimate laptop. I have a Windows Mobile 6.5 phone and use WMWifiRouter to tether my laptop to the phone. (WMWifiRouter actually creates a mobile Internet hotspot.) This provides my laptop with wireless Internet access just about anywhere.

WMWifiRouer uses WEP/Open encryption. I use a complex encyption key.

Everytime I launch WMWifiRouter and use my laptop, I have to *manually* connect my Win7 laptop to the wireless network and also have to *type* in the security key. There is no option to "Save password" or to have the laptop automatically connect to the wireless network.

The wireless network is configured within Win7 as a "Public network"; I've changed it to "Work network" and "Home network", however, with the same results.

I'm at a loss as to why I can't configure Win7 to automatically connect to this wireless network. I even used the Manage Wireless Networks applet to manually add the wireless network (including entering the security key), configuring it to automatically connect to the network, but Win7 still refuses to connect automatically to this network and I still have to type in the security key.

What am I missing? Thanks.

Cwaters, this is a nasty problem indeed, and, as I´ve seen so far, without a solution. Have a look at

Wireless Network Will Not Connect Automatically On Boot

maybe, I will give you some insight. If you find something that works, plz reply, as I´ve been unable to solve this problem too.

Check your services to see if WLAN autoConfig service is started. Also check to see if its dependencies are running.

Thanks, everyone.

The Windows 7 Wireless Setup: Fixing Problems & How to Set Up Networks for Windows 7, Vista, and Windows XP article didn't help resolve my problem.

The WLAN AutoConfig service is started and set to Automatic. I have no problem automatically connecting to other wireless networks; it's just this particular wireless network that I can't connect to. I had the problem with Win7 RC but figured it was something that would be fixed with the RTM. I formatted my HDD and installed Win7 RTM; the problem persists.

The problem described in the Wireless Network Will Not Connect Automatically On Boot forum post is very similar to the problem I described. I notice that the wireless network I'm having this problem with does *not* have a "Connect automatically" checkbox; I neglected to mention that. Perhaps Windows 7 is unable to be configured to automatically connect to wireless networks having WEP encryption?

Well, my WLAN is a WPA2-PSK, and it has the same problem. Now that you mentioned you only have this problem with one specific WLAN, I´ll try swapping routers to see what happens, but strangely enough, it was all working fine until 3 days ago.

Hi all, I followed the above advice and thank God this finally was the answer!!! The tip from Fikin to Smokey was right on!! I found the tip at http://social.answers.microsoft.com/...a-a74fd1825dd8 He said to:
I saw this very frustrating issue on both my work and home WLAN. A colleague has helped me to identify the issue and the fix we used is posted below;
1) Go to the folder C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Wlansvc\Profiles (it's hidden folder so you'll have to manually type the path from the windows start bar),
2) Give the local Administrators group full permissions;
a) In windows explorer, right click within the folder and select properties
b) Select the Security tab
c) Click Edit
d) Select the Administrators group (or if it's not there already, add it)
e) Ensure all the permissions are ticked, with the exception of special permissions,
f) Click OK then OK.
3) Try adding a wireless profile again by going to Network and Sharing Centre - you should not now get the "Access Denied" message.
Hope it helps!
Nikki
This worked Great!!! p.s, I copied and pasted the folder location instead of typing it out. This fixed it, Thank God. It was just so frustrating. Thanks all, Ben.