IP-Switch

Author: Mehmet Aslandag · License: Apache 2.0 · Deutsch

IP-Switch is a lightweight Windows tray application that stores IPv4 configurations of network adapters as named profiles and applies them with one click: static address, DHCP, gateway and DNS.

• Runs permanently and resource-friendly in the notification area (system tray). There is no polling: changes are detected through Windows network events, and the manager window is only created when needed.
• Administrator rights are requested only at the moment a network setting is changed (UAC).
• Before every change the previous configuration is backed up. If applying fails, it is restored automatically.
• All data stays local. No cloud connection, no telemetry, no data transfer.
• User interface in 8 languages: English, German, Turkish, French, Italian, Arabic (right-to-left), Chinese (Simplified) and Russian.

Screenshots

Light mode	Dark mode

Tray menu (right-click on the tray icon):

Disabling an adapter – red status dot for disabled adapters, confirmation in the app's own (dark) dialog:

_{Shown with sample profiles and adapters.}

Download

Microsoft Store

IP-Switch is on its way to the Microsoft Store as IP-Switch (the link works once Microsoft has certified it). The Store version is signed by Microsoft, installs without any warning and updates itself. Network changes still ask for administrator rights (UAC); autostart is managed under Windows Settings › Apps › Startup. Use either the Store version or a download from GitHub, not both – on first start the Store version takes over existing profiles and settings.

GitHub

Get the latest version from the releases page:

File	Description
IPSwitch-<version>-x64.msi	Installer (per user, no administrator rights required for installation)
IPSwitch-<version>-win-x64.zip	Portable, self-contained – no .NET installation required
IPSwitch-<version>-win-x64-net10.zip	Portable, small – requires the .NET 10 Desktop Runtime

All release files are built from source by GitHub Actions. IP-Switch uses free code signing provided by SignPath.io, certificate by SignPath Foundation – see the code signing policy. Checksums: SHA256SUMS.txt in every release.

Features

Area	Function
Adapters	Detects all network adapters with IPv4, including disabled ones. Status dot: green = connected, grey = disconnected, red = disabled. Shows status, type, speed, MAC, identifier (GUID), active and saved IPv4 configuration (address/prefix, gateway, DNS, DHCP server).
Profiles	Create, edit, duplicate, delete, import, export (JSON).
Assignment	Profiles can be assigned to an adapter – in the profile editor, via the ⋮ menu of a profile tile or directly in the tray menu under Set up quick access. Assigned profiles appear in the tray menu as quick access.
Apply	From the tray menu (one click) or from the manager window. Plus “Enable DHCP” for IP and DNS.
Adapter on/off	“Disable adapter” / “Enable adapter” in the manager window and in the tray submenu – like in Windows Network Connections; the IP configuration is kept.
Capture	“Save current configuration as profile” takes over the values of an adapter into a new profile. New values can be entered directly and set immediately with “Save and apply”.
Safety	Backup before every change, verification afterwards, automatic rollback on errors. “Restore latest backup” and a list of all backups per adapter.
Validation	Live checks in the editor with clear messages, e.g. gateway outside the subnet, network or broadcast address, invalid mask, duplicate DNS servers, duplicate profile names, address already used by another adapter.
Comfort	Autostart (optional), optionally with administrator rights (no UAC prompts), single instance (a second start opens the window), notifications, light/dark theme.
Languages	English, Deutsch, Türkçe, Français, Italiano, العربية (right-to-left), 中文 (Simplified), Русский – follows Windows or can be chosen in the tray under Settings → Language. Help and manual in English and German.

Profile content

Field	Required	Notes
Name	yes	unique, max. 64 characters
Description	no	max. 500 characters
DHCP setting	yes	“obtain automatically” or “use the following IP address”
IPv4 address	if static	e.g. 192.168.1.10
Subnet mask or prefix length	if static	255.255.255.0, 24 or /24
Default gateway	no	must be in the same subnet
Preferred DNS server	no	empty with DHCP = DNS via DHCP as well
Alternate DNS server	no	only together with a preferred DNS server
Adapter assignment	no	via the adapter's internal identifier

Usage

Tray icon: a left or right click opens the menu (see the screenshot above).

• Quick access at the top: assigned profiles as “Profile → Adapter”, one click applies. Set up quick access assigns profiles to adapters directly from the menu.
• One submenu per adapter with status, IP, gateway and DNS, plus “Apply profile …”, “Apply another profile”, “Enable DHCP”, “Disable adapter” / “Enable adapter”, “Save current configuration as profile …” and “Restore latest backup”.
• Settings: show all adapters, success notifications, start with Windows, start with administrator rights, restart with administrator rights now, appearance (same as Windows / light / dark), language, data folder.

Manager window: a card layout that follows the Windows light/dark mode (switchable in the tray under Settings → Appearance).

• Header: “New profile”, Edit, Duplicate, Delete, ? (help). The gear holds import, export, data folder, help and about.
• Profiles: tiles (two columns when the window is wide enough) with IP/prefix, gateway, mode, DNS and the assigned adapter, plus a search box, “+ New” and “⋯”. The ⋮ menu of each tile (also via right-click) contains: apply to the target adapter, Assign to ▸ (adapter or “No assignment”), Edit, Duplicate, Export and Delete.
• Right, “Assign profile to:”: choose the target adapter, “Disable adapter” / “Enable adapter”, “Refresh” and the current adapter configuration (with details, “Save as profile”, backups). Below: “Enable DHCP” (bordeaux) and “Apply profile now” (sky blue). For assigned profiles the matching adapter is selected automatically.
• Bottom, “Adapters”: all adapters as tiles with status (green/grey/red dot), address and mode. A click selects the target adapter; adapters that no longer fit are behind “+ N more”.

Shortcuts: F1 help, F5 refresh, Ctrl+N new profile, Ctrl+F search, arrow keys to move between tiles, Enter or double-click to edit, Del to delete, menu key opens the ⋮ menu.

Security and privacy

• Rights model: IPSwitch.exe runs with standard rights (asInvoker). For a change the application starts itself a second time with runas (UAC prompt) as a short-lived helper process. This process checks the request again, backs up, applies, verifies the result and exits. If the UAC prompt is declined, nothing is changed.
• Optionally without UAC prompts: Settings → Start with administrator rights creates a scheduled task “IP-Switch Autostart (Administrator) <SID>” that starts IP-Switch at sign-in with highest privileges. Creating and removing it each requires one UAC confirmation. When IP-Switch runs with administrator rights, changes are made directly in the process without a helper and without a prompt; the menu then shows “IP-Switch (Administrator)”. The option is available for administrator accounts only and means the application runs permanently elevated.
• No shell, no injection: netsh.exe is started with its full system path and individually passed, strictly validated arguments.
• Local only: profiles, settings, backups and the log are stored in %LOCALAPPDATA%\IPSwitch. This folder is deliberately not synchronised with roaming profiles. The application opens no network connections.

Technical implementation

Task	Interface
Read adapters and active configuration	System.Net.NetworkInformation (IP Helper API GetAdaptersAddresses)
Read saved configuration, verify after applying	HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters\Interfaces\{GUID} (read-only)
Write configuration	`netsh interface ipv4 set/add/delete address
Detect changes	NetworkChange.NetworkAddressChanged / NetworkAvailabilityChanged
Localisation	Embedded JSON files per language (src/IPSwitch.Core/Localization/Strings/*.json) with English fallback

Adapter identification: profiles store the adapter's interface GUID, which does not change when the adapter is renamed. The MAC address serves as fallback, e.g. when an adapter receives a new GUID after a driver reinstallation. Name and description are stored for display only. netsh addresses the adapter by its interface index, which is resolved from the GUID right before the change – special characters or renaming do not matter.

Applying a configuration:

1. Validate the target configuration (in the application and again in the helper process).
2. Find the adapter by GUID or MAC and determine the current IPv4 index.
3. Read the current configuration and save it as JSON in backups\. Without a successful backup nothing is changed.
4. Run netsh commands, for example:

   netsh interface ipv4 set address name=12 source=static address=192.168.0.50 mask=255.255.255.0 gateway=192.168.0.1
   netsh interface ipv4 set dnsservers name=12 source=static address=192.168.0.1 validate=no
   netsh interface ipv4 add dnsservers name=12 address=9.9.9.9 index=2 validate=no
   

   When switching to DHCP, static gateways and previous static addresses are removed explicitly – netsh … source=dhcp would otherwise leave them active, blocking the address for other adapters. Before a static configuration IP-Switch also checks whether the address is already assigned to another adapter, which Windows does not allow (“The object already exists”).
5. Verify the result against the saved configuration (with short retries).
6. On an error in step 4 or 5 the backup is restored and verified as well. The result appears with every executed command in the “Show details” dialog and in the log.

Storage locations

Path	Content
%LOCALAPPDATA%\IPSwitch\profiles.json	Profiles
%LOCALAPPDATA%\IPSwitch\settings.json	Settings (incl. theme and language)
%LOCALAPPDATA%\IPSwitch\backups\	Backups (max. 20 per adapter)
%LOCALAPPDATA%\IPSwitch\logs\ip-switch.log	Log (max. 1 MB, one previous file)

A corrupt profiles.json is never overwritten. It is saved as profiles.json.defekt-<timestamp> and a notice is shown.

Profile file format (import/export)

{
  "format": "IPSwitch.Profiles",
  "version": 1,
  "profiles": [
    {
      "name": "Lab 192.168.0.x",
      "description": "Test network in the lab",
      "useDhcp": false,
      "ipAddress": "192.168.0.50",
      "subnetMask": "255.255.255.0",
      "gateway": "192.168.0.1",
      "preferredDns": "192.168.0.1",
      "alternateDns": "9.9.9.9",
      "adapter": { "interfaceId": "{42CA3769-…}", "macAddress": "02-1B-1B-AF-7E-00", "lastKnownName": "Ethernet" }
    }
  ]
}

A plain JSON array of profiles is accepted as well. Invalid entries are skipped with a reason, name conflicts are resolved by renaming (“Name (2)”). Sample profiles: samples/beispielprofile.json.

Build and installation

.\build.ps1

produces in artifacts\: a self-contained ZIP (no .NET installation required), a small ZIP for the .NET 10 Desktop Runtime and a per-user MSI (no administrator rights needed for installation). Official releases are built by the GitHub Actions workflow when a version tag v<version> is pushed. Details:

• Build guide (German)
• Code signing and release process (German)
• Changelog
• Installation guide (German)
• User manual · Benutzerhandbuch

Requirements: Windows 10 (1809+) or Windows 11 x64; for building, the .NET 10 SDK.

Project structure

IPSwitch.sln
├─ src/IPSwitch.Core/          Logic without UI: models, validation, storage, adapters, netsh, rollback,
│                              translations (Localization/Strings/*.json)
├─ src/IPSwitch.App/           WinForms tray application (tray menu, manager window, editor, help, helper process)
├─ tests/IPSwitch.Core.Tests/  xUnit tests (incl. a netsh simulator for apply/rollback, translation checks)
├─ installer/                  WiX project for the MSI
├─ packaging/                  Install/uninstall scripts for the ZIP package
│  └─ msix/                    Microsoft Store package: manifest, logos, identity, Store texts, submission guide
├─ samples/                    Sample profiles
├─ tools/                      Generation of the application icon
├─ docs/                       Manuals, build and installation guides, screenshots
├─ .github/workflows/          CI: tests, packages, code signing, releases
├─ .signpath/                  SignPath artifact configurations (code signing)
├─ build.ps1                   Tests, publishing, ZIP and MSI packages
└─ build-msix.ps1              Microsoft Store package (MSIX)

Adding or improving a translation

All user interface texts live in src/IPSwitch.Core/Localization/Strings/<code>.json. The tests check that every language contains exactly the keys of en.json, uses the same placeholders ({0}, {1}, …) and that every key used in the source code exists. Missing texts fall back to English at runtime.

Limitations

• Only IPv4 is managed. IPv6 addresses are shown but not changed.
• A profile contains exactly one address and one gateway. Backups, however, also restore multiple addresses and gateways.
• The gateway metric stays “automatic”. DNS suffixes, WINS and NetBIOS are not changed.
• Profiles apply per adapter, not per Wi-Fi network (SSID).
• Group policies or endpoint security products may block changes through netsh. This is reported as an error and the previous configuration is restored.
• In standard mode every change requires its own UAC confirmation. This is intentional so that no permanently elevated processes run. If you do not want this, enable Start with administrator rights (see above).

Code signing policy

Free code signing provided by SignPath.io, certificate by SignPath Foundation.

• Only files built from this repository by its GitHub Actions workflow are signed. Every signing request for a release is approved manually.
• Committers and reviewers: Mehmet Aslandag (memoldinyo)
• Approvers: Mehmet Aslandag (memoldinyo)
• Privacy: this program will not transfer any information to other networked systems unless specifically requested by the user or the person installing or operating it. See the privacy policy.
• Security issues: see the security policy.

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IP-Switch is developed by Mehmet Aslandag. Copyright © 2026 Mehmet Aslandag. Licensed under the Apache License 2.0.