How to Find MAC Address on Windows 10 – Best 5 Methods
You can find out about your computer MAC address by accessing the network settings using command prompt, PowerShell, control panel, and more. Find out about these methods in detail from this guide on how to find MAC address on Windows 10.
Every Windows 10 device has a unique MAC address embedded in its physical network adapters (wired and wireless.) This, along with the IP address, enables the communication between multiple devices connected through a local network.
Most users don’t know the MAC address of their computer as this knowledge isn’t essential. However, situations may arise when they need to find the MAC address on Windows 10 for device identification or network permission configuration on a router.
In this article, we’ll tell you how to find MAC address on Windows 10 using multiple methods. But first, let’s learn about the MAC address in brief.
What Is MAC Address?
MAC Address is the acronym for Media Access Control address. It’s a unique 48-bit hardware number of a computer which is also called the physical address of a network device. This address gets embedded into a network card during the manufacturing process.
The Media Access Control protocol sub-layer is the place where the address is mostly used. A MAC address contains 12 hexadecimal digits to express a 48-bit binary value, which means 4 bits for each hexadecimal digit. Since this address comes in a flat structure, you can’t route them on the Internet. Moreover, it’s not used in serial interfaces.
How to Find Mac Address on Windows 10 Using Settings
- Open the Settings of your computer.
- Select Network & Internet section.
- Choose between Ethernet or Wi-Fi, whichever you’re using.
- Select Status from the left panel to open network status.
- Click on Properties on Wi-Fi or Ethernet whichever you’re using.
- Scroll down to find the MAC address of your Windows 10 computer.
How to Find MAC Address With Command Prompt
- Click on the Search option and type CMD.
- When the results appear, click on Command Prompt.
- Type the following code and hit Enter.
getmac /v
- You’ll see the MAC address or physical address for your active adapters.
Note: If the search option doesn’t work, you can learn the fixes to Windows 10 Search not working issue.
How to Find MAC Address on Windows 10 With PowerShell
- Click on the Start button and find out PowerShell from the app list to open it.
- If unavailable, you can also type it on search.
- Type or copy-paste this command on PowerShell:
Get-NetAdapter
- Press Enter to get the MAC address for every network adapter configured on the device.
How to Find MAC Address From Control Panel
- Open the Windows 10 Control Panel and click on Network and Internet.
- Click on Network and Sharing Center to open it.
- Look at the left panel and select Change adapter settings.
- A new window will open on the screen that contains the list of all active adapters.
- Double-click the connected adapter Wi-Fi or Ethernet.
- Click on the Details button to get your MAC address for the existing network adapter.
How to Find MAC Address Using System Information
- Open the Search option and type System Information.
- Select the top result to open.
- Click on the + icon beside the Components option on the left.
- Expand the Network branch by double-clicking to select the Adapter option.
- Here, you’ll find a long list of network adapters and their properties.
- Find the one you have been looking for and use it as you prefer.
Reasons You Need to Find Mac Address on Windows 10
There could be various reasons why you may need to find the MAC address of your Windows 10 computer or laptop. The most common scenario is when you face some complex computer network issues. MAC address helps you diagnose or fix certain computer network errors and problems. Apart from this, this address lets you filter out some devices from your network while setting up the router.
In addition, you may want to identify the devices connected to your Wi-Fi router using the MAC address. Once you know the address of your own computer, detecting any intruder and blocking them becomes effortless.
FAQs on How to Find Mac Address on Windows 10
What Is the Example of MAC Address?
A MAC address is a 12-character string. It may contain digits between 0 to 9 and letters from A to F. The address is divided into three sections for easy readability. The three common formats are:
64:7F:79:12:34:56
64-7F-79-12-34-56
647.F79.123.456
Is Device ID Same as MAC Address?
No, the MAC address and device ID are different. In fact, the device ID is a part of the MAC ID. A MAC address identifies the Network Interface Card and consists of two parts. The first six characters are the Block ID and the remaining six characters are Device IDs. The Device ID contains information such as the device model and manufacturer date.
Does Windows 10 Have MAC Address?
Yes, like all other computer devices, desktops and laptops running on Windows 10 also have MAC addresses. However, you need to remember that different network adapters come with their unique MAC addresses. For example, a computer, with both an Ethernet port (wired) and a Wi-Fi connection(wireless,) has two separate MAC addresses — one for each method.
Wrapping Up
In this article, we described 5 sure-shot methods of how to find MAC address on Windows 10. Using this stepwise tutorial, Windows 10 users can easily locate their MAC address for all existing network adapters, even if they don’t have any technical expertise. If you also use Linux, you might want to know how to get your Linux MAC address.
