How to Find a MAC Address in the Registry

Techwalla may earn compensation through affiliate links in this story. Learn more about our affiliate and product review process here.
Image Credit: Pixland/Pixland/Getty Images

A Media Access Control (MAC) address is a physical address hard coded onto a network card. This alphanumeric label is unique for each network card manufactured. You can find the MAC address of your network card in your Windows registry. The registry holds your computer's settings, configurations and user preferences, as well as important operating system values, such as your MAC address.

Advertisement

Step 1

Click the Windows Start button and select "Run." Enter "regedit" into the text box and press the "OK" button. This starts the Windows registry.

Video of the Day

Step 2

Navigate to the "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class{4D36E972-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}" directory in the registry. This holds the network card settings for your adapter.

Advertisement

Step 3

Right-click the registry key labeled "NetworkAddress" and select "Modify." This will open a new window where you are able to view the full MAC address for your network card (viewing it just from the registry window truncates the final characters).

Advertisement

Step 4

View the full MAC address. The MAC address is a 12-character alphanumeric label. The characters in the opened window are the physical address of your network card.

Video of the Day

Advertisement

Advertisement

references