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A6100 Installation, Standalone or Genie Version and Windows WLAN AutoConfig
Hello, Thanks for taking the time to read my question. I've searched for this answer and even sent an email to Microsoft, but no answer yet...I cannot find it anywhere. So what I'm wanting to know has more to do with WLAN in general than with my NetGear A6100 card but it does apply to my A6100 NIC. I installed the A6100 v1.0.0.30 with Genie on my Windows 8.1 64-bit machine and it seems to work good, I see many networks and all appears to be good, but I'm wondering if I should uninstall it and just use the standalone version? The reason I ask this is that this is the first WLAN NIC I've had in years, almost 7+ years since I last used WLAN and I realize that things have changed, but back then I had a Wireless NIC (don't wanna mention the name 'cause it wasn't a NetGear product), and I remember that the product had it's own WLAN service and driver and I had to turn off Microsoft's WLAN AutoConfig service in order for it to work properly. The PC I had this on was Windows XP Pro and I understand that Windows 8.1 has probably added some new things for networking but I'm wondering if I turn the WLAN AutoConfig service off in Windows 8.1 and uninstall the Genie version of NetGear and then install the standalone version, will I still have the ability to use WLAN on my Windows 8.1 machine. In other words, do I need the Windows WLAN AutoConfig service to be on for the NetGear driver and firmware to function. I do not like the Windows WLAN AutoConfig, it never seems to connect properly, loses connections alot (they go from good to limited, etc.) and would prefer to have only the NetGear drivers for accessing Wireless networks. I have all the latest updates from Windows Update installed, except the one where it offers to replace the NETGEAR A6100 Genie with the Microsoft version of it and I also know that other people on Windows 7 and 8 have issues with the Microsoft WLAN AutoConfig so this is not just something limited to my computer.