Issue

WiFi does not work on Lenovo IdeaPad 330S Windows 10 laptop. Windows Settings has no WiFi options listed as if the PC didn’t have a WiFi adapter. Device Manager, however, shows that the WiF adapter is installed and working correctly. Trying to add an external WiFi dongle does not help – drivers get automatically installed and it is then listed in the Device Manager with no issues. but Windows still does now show anything WiFi related.

Resolution

A quick look into Windows Services showed that the WLAN AutoConfig service was not running. Trying to start it fails with the error below:

Windows could not start the WLAN AutoConfig service on Local Computer.
Error 1075: The dependency service does not exist or has been marked for deletion.

Windows Event Viewer revealed that the dependent service in question was NativeWiFi Filter (NativeWifiP) service. It was missing and nowhere to be found on the laptop… sfc /scannow and a few other quick attempts to resolve the issue didn’t help.

The issue was finally resolved by running Windows 10 reinstall while keeping personal files and apps. 

Please note, if you try to reinstall Windows 10 (or 11) from Windows Settings > System > Recovery the only options you will get are going to be “Keep my files (but remove apps)” and “Remove everything“. To get a chance to keep Personal Files and Apps, you need to run the Windows setup from a previously downloaded USB or DVD drive (make sure it has the same version of Windows 10 / 11).

August 2022
Lenovo IdeaPad 330S
Windows 10 Home