[GH-ISSUE #1658] Reuse network adapter profile on Windows instead of bloating the registry #2880

New Issue

saavagebueno · 2026-08-05T00:49:26-04:00

saavagebueno commented

2026-08-05 00:49:26 -04:00

Originally created by @GermanCoding on GitHub (Mar 3, 2024).
Original GitHub issue: https://github.com/netbirdio/netbird/issues/1658

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.
Currently, netbird on Windows always creates a new network adapter and corresponding network profile when the application starts/restarts. This causes a new network profile to be created in the Windows registry (HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\NetworkList\Profiles). After a few restarts, the registry is quickly bloated with leftover profiles, which is not only wasteful but also visually ugly - in the Windows Network Center, the profile shows up with duplicate names like "wt0 (8)" because Windows renames duplicate profiles automatically.

This also prevents network administrators from configuring the interface: Common issues revolve around setting the interface to private (this gets reset by the creation of a new profile) and customizing local firewalls (especially of third party vendors - those are sometimes entirely based on network profiles).

Describe the solution you'd like
Netbird should reuse an existing network profile when creating the TUN device. This appears to be (almost) trivially possible by changing:

index 900e62f..4dac66f 100644
--- a/iface/tun_windows.go
+++ b/iface/tun_windows.go
@@ -41,7 +41,7 @@ func newTunDevice(name string, address WGAddress, port int, key string, mtu int,
 }
 
 func (t *tunDevice) Create() (wgConfigurer, error) {
-	tunDevice, err := tun.CreateTUN(t.name, t.mtu)
+	tunDevice, err := tun.CreateTUNWithRequestedGUID(t.name, &myGUID, t.mtu)
 	if err != nil {
 		return nil, err
 	}

17f5abc653/iface/tun_windows.go (L44C24-L44C33)

This causes wireguard to reuse an existing profile if one with such a GUID exists. The GUID should be deterministic across restarts, possibly generated from the client's public key?

Describe alternatives you've considered
There aren't really any alternatives except accepting this problem or not using Netbird.

Additional context
I'm new to go, so I'm not entirely confident with submitting a PR myself right now. Are you interested in a PR for this?

Originally created by @GermanCoding on GitHub (Mar 3, 2024). Original GitHub issue: https://github.com/netbirdio/netbird/issues/1658 **Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.** Currently, netbird on Windows always creates a new network adapter and corresponding network profile when the application starts/restarts. This causes a new network profile to be created in the Windows registry (`HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\NetworkList\Profiles`). After a few restarts, the registry is quickly bloated with leftover profiles, which is not only wasteful but also visually ugly - in the Windows Network Center, the profile shows up with duplicate names like "wt0 (8)" because Windows renames duplicate profiles automatically. This also prevents network administrators from configuring the interface: Common issues revolve around setting the interface to private (this gets reset by the creation of a new profile) and customizing local firewalls (especially of third party vendors - those are sometimes entirely based on network profiles). **Describe the solution you'd like** Netbird should reuse an existing network profile when creating the TUN device. This appears to be (almost) trivially possible by changing: ```diff --git a/iface/tun_windows.go b/iface/tun_windows.go index 900e62f..4dac66f 100644 --- a/iface/tun_windows.go +++ b/iface/tun_windows.go @@ -41,7 +41,7 @@ func newTunDevice(name string, address WGAddress, port int, key string, mtu int, } func (t *tunDevice) Create() (wgConfigurer, error) { - tunDevice, err := tun.CreateTUN(t.name, t.mtu) + tunDevice, err := tun.CreateTUNWithRequestedGUID(t.name, &myGUID, t.mtu) if err != nil { return nil, err } ``` https://github.com/netbirdio/netbird/blob/17f5abc6537c79fb36f4afc7c74b7670108123be/iface/tun_windows.go#L44C24-L44C33 This causes wireguard to reuse an existing profile if one with such a GUID exists. The GUID should be deterministic across restarts, possibly generated from the client's public key? **Describe alternatives you've considered** There aren't really any alternatives except accepting this problem or not using Netbird. **Additional context** I'm new to go, so I'm not entirely confident with submitting a PR myself right now. Are you interested in a PR for this?

saavagebueno added the feature-request label 2026-08-05 00:49:26 -04:00

saavagebueno referenced this issue

2026-08-05 01:06:25 -04:00

[GH-ISSUE #2880] Relay server bug - Connections not closed after EOF exception #6031

saavagebueno referenced this issue

2026-08-05 01:06:27 -04:00

[GH-ISSUE #2880] Relay server bug - Connections not closed after EOF exception #6044

saavagebueno referenced this issue

2026-08-05 01:07:14 -04:00

[GH-ISSUE #2880] Relay server bug - Connections not closed after EOF exception #6213

saavagebueno referenced this issue

2026-08-05 01:07:17 -04:00

[GH-ISSUE #2880] Relay server bug - Connections not closed after EOF exception #6220

saavagebueno referenced this issue

2026-08-05 01:07:21 -04:00

[GH-ISSUE #2880] Relay server bug - Connections not closed after EOF exception #6232

saavagebueno referenced this issue

2026-08-05 01:07:52 -04:00

[GH-ISSUE #2880] Relay server bug - Connections not closed after EOF exception #6350

saavagebueno referenced this issue

2026-08-05 01:07:54 -04:00

[GH-ISSUE #2880] Relay server bug - Connections not closed after EOF exception #6361

saavagebueno referenced this issue

2026-08-05 01:07:59 -04:00

[GH-ISSUE #2880] Relay server bug - Connections not closed after EOF exception #6369

saavagebueno referenced this issue

2026-08-05 01:29:08 -04:00

[GH-ISSUE #5909] NetBird Self-Hosted ECS + Nginx Proxy: Peer Registers → Immediate Disconnect (502 Relay + Signal Header) #11271

saavagebueno referenced this issue

2026-08-05 01:31:30 -04:00

[GH-ISSUE #5909] NetBird Self-Hosted ECS + Nginx Proxy: Peer Registers → Immediate Disconnect (502 Relay + Signal Header) #11892

saavagebueno referenced this issue

2026-08-05 02:05:41 -04:00

[GH-ISSUE #5909] NetBird Self-Hosted ECS + Nginx Proxy: Peer Registers → Immediate Disconnect (502 Relay + Signal Header) #12330

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Reference: DYNR/netbird#2880