Missing Network Settings - "Find Devices and Content"

You are amazing, i spent a couple hours messing with registry, deleting anti virus and running command prompts.  For some reason every network i join defaults to public so all those fixes were undone as soon as i joined the network again.  This fix took about 6 seconds and worked perfectly!!!!

I'm experiencing the same problem. Haven't resolved it on my computer yet. Win 8.1, not in Homegroup, not in Domain, etc. etc., like most of you, not running Hyper-V (though it is a possibility and is installed, I frankly have no idea what the heck it IS much less how to START or USE it), but also, ...

I have no "NwCategoryWizard" entry in the registry anywhere. It's not a key or a value or anything else. The sub-folder under *HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Network* is a folder named Location Awareness. This folder has only the default-key in it, with no value set. A full search of the registry for the string "NwCategoryWizard" finds nothing.

Harrumph.

I'm interested in finding a resolution to this problem (lacking the "Find Devices and Content" slider, and all the associated corruptions which its absence implies) simply to TURN ON MY DANG BLUETOOTH ANTENNA.

I had hoped maybe I could click my way through THIS solution as a step toward THAT solution. But I'm getting nowhere. The computer is still under warranty at HP, but the only service they've offered is that they'll let me ship it to them so that they can restore to factory-condition settings etc., which might as well be an admission that "we have no bleeping idea, and neither does Microsoft."

Keep this thread going, maybe someone will find a solution?

Hey guys,

Great news, I found a fix! I realized another problem was related to the problem we all have, and that is that the network location actually doesn't show up at all. So I searched for a solution to that problem, and I found this page: https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg252535(v=ws.10).aspx

The solution is this: remove HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Network\NwCategoryWizard

The end. Slider is back! :)

Rather that deleting it I just set the value from 0 to 1. I killed and restarted explorer.exe via TaskMgr to reload the registry and ta-da - the setting was back.

THANK YOU for your post. I was going insane trying to get this setting to show up so I could get my ChromeCast to work.

Yes, I know OP doesn't have a ChromeCast but maybe your reghack or mine will help.

This solution worked for me so thanks dear users - Um Microsoft support, a bit embarrassing that you couldn't answer this question on page 1 all those years ago but the users of the software you created come up with the answer; Wow! Also Microsoft still have not fixed this problem through an update and generally waste massive amounts of time for users trying to resolve this and other annoying windows issues.

i finally found the solution

goto Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\Troubleshooting\Network and Internet

and select homegroup , then skip network troubleshoot and it will ask that changing to private network will solve and apply the fix :)

This is what I had to do to "WORK AROUND", I cannot stress that enough, the problem. This is a stupid fix and the "find devices and content" is still not found. 

I've checked...

PC Settings > Network > Connections > Network Device > Nothing here.

PC Settings > Network > HomeGroup > Tells me to go to "Network > Connections > Network Device".

Charms > Right Click Wifi Name > no option to turn on sharing.

My System

I am not part of a Domain

I am not part of a Home Group

I am running Windows 8.1 latest updates (SPRO3)

I have Turned UAC down 1 tick

I have deleted the Hyper-V virtual switch networks

I have uninstalled Hyper-V

I have tried turning it off and on again

My Wifi device is not bridged

How do we get the option "find devices and content" back?