How do I get Windows interfaces to show up in Wireshark?

Check out these great references as well: 

 Our custom profiles repository for Wireshark
 Our Udemy course on Wireshark 
 Our Udemy course on Wireless Packet capture

Apparently this is a common problem, where on Windows systems you do not see any interfaces:

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There are a couple of things to try:

1. If you are using the npcap driver, sometimes the driver ‘service’ is stopped by antivirus or Defender or something.

The fix to this is simple: first open a CMD prompt – but make sure you run CMD as Administrator

It should have you at the C:\WINDOWS\system32 prompt:

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OK now issue the following command in that window:

sc query npcap

You will likely find it to be stopped:

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So now turn it on with:

net start npcap

Be patient, it will take about 30 seconds:

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And then hit F5 on your Wireshark application to refresh the interfaces, or restart Wireshark and all should be well:

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2. Try running Wireshark as Administrator.

3. Try re-installing Wireshark (don’t worry your personal configs will be saved unless you explicitly remove those as well – I would not do it!).

Let us know what other fixes you find in the comments below.

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