User Guide

Getting Started

Your first five minutes with Network Weather

Network Weather watches your network from the system tray. When something is wrong, it shows you which part of the connection is struggling (your WiFi, your router or your internet provider) and a scan tells you what to do about it.

Installing

Download the latest MSIX from the releases page and double-click it. The App Installer opens, you click Install, and Network Weather appears in the Start menu a few seconds later.

If you're rolling out across a fleet (Intune, SCCM, GPO, or PowerShell provisioning), see the Windows Deployment guide instead.

Requirements: Windows 11 (build 22621+), x64, WebView2 runtime (already included on Windows 11). No admin rights needed for a per-user install.

First launch

The first time you open Network Weather, it walks you through a short setup:

  1. Welcome: tick the box to accept the terms of service and privacy policy, then click Let's Go. On a fresh install a Network Weather page can open in your browser at this point; it finishes setting up and is expected.
  2. What bothers you: pick the network problems that bother you most, or skip. Your answers tell us what to build next; they don't change what the app measures.
  3. Your network: a summary of what the app can already see, your connection, router and internet provider. Anything it hasn't worked out yet reads "Detecting..." and fills in on its own. This step doesn't run a scan.
  4. How we help: a short description of what the app does, then Get Started takes you to the main window.

Nothing here is required beyond accepting the terms. When you're ready, run your first scan from the Scan tab.

The four tabs

Network Weather is organized into a left sidebar with four tabs:

Tab What it does
Scan Runs a full scan of the network you're on: speed, how much delay builds up when the connection is busy, and checks on your router and WiFi. Also lists your recent scans.
Insights What your scans found, with the steps to fix each one. A badge shows how many are unresolved.
Status A live map of your connection: this PC, WiFi or Ethernet, router, internet provider, and the services you monitor, each with its current health.
Settings Launch at Login, Check for Updates, feedback, diagnostics (the log folder), and build details.

The dot on the Status tab turns green, yellow, or red with overall network health, so you can tell at a glance if anything's wrong without opening the tab.

The system tray icon

Network Weather lives in the Windows system tray (the icon area near the clock, lower right). Click it to show or hide the main window. Right-click it for a menu: Show (or Hide), About Network Weather..., Check for Updates..., Copy as JSON, Copy as Text, Launch at startup, Give David Feedback, and Exit.

Closing the window leaves the app running in the tray. The tray icon is the same whatever your network's health, and this version doesn't send notifications about your connection; open the window to see the current state.

Battery life

Network Weather measures more often when the window is open and you're plugged in (every 5 seconds), less often on battery (every 15 seconds), and least often when the window is closed or minimized (every 60 seconds). You don't need to configure this; it adapts automatically.

Where things live

What Path
Logs %LOCALAPPDATA%\NetworkWeather\Logs\
Your settings file %LOCALAPPDATA%\NetworkWeather\nwx.config (or config.json)
Saved router passwords (encrypted with DPAPI) HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\NetworkWeather\Gateways in the registry

Settings has a Show in File Explorer button next to the log folder if you need to grab logs for support.

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