A tiny Windows tray widget that switches, in one click, which of your two network adapters carries the internet — and can pin individual apps to a specific adapter.
Handy when a PC has two network connections — say, two ISPs or two routers — and you want to quickly choose which one is primary and which is backup. It can also force a specific program (a browser, a game, a downloader) to go strictly through a chosen network, without touching the rest of your traffic.
A dark/light, frameless, Windows 11-style window that stays on top, follows the Windows theme, speaks 8 languages, and minimizes to the tray.
If your PC has two network cards, Windows has no convenient built-in way to switch between them. The stock route — Control Panel → Network and Sharing Center → Change adapter settings, then digging into adapter properties and interface metrics — is buried and clunky, and the modern Settings UI doesn't make working with network adapters any friendlier either. I wanted switching to be a single click, so I made LAN Switcher.
- Priority switch — a toggle between the two adapters. A click changes the system metrics (
InterfaceMetric), and all traffic flows through the chosen network. When both adapters are in automatic mode, the toggle centers ("Auto"). - Live internet check — under each adapter, a colored dot shows real connectivity (green = online, yellow = slow, red = no internet, grey = no link) plus the latency in ms. Checked in the background (a bound TCP connect through each adapter), so the UI never freezes.
- Traffic counter — cumulative received/sent per adapter (↓/↑) since the PC booted.
- Per-app adapter binding — "app → adapter" rules of two kinds: injection (via ForceBindIP, for regular apps) and proxy (a built-in local proxy, reliable for Chromium browsers). Includes a traffic check and one-click desktop shortcuts.
- Settings hub (⚙) — a scrollable, resizable settings window with:
- Metrics — change the priority numbers (25 / 9999 by default).
- Profiles — save/apply/delete named profiles (a profile stores the priority adapter + metrics, the app rules, and per-adapter DNS). Pick from a dropdown.
- Autostart — start with Windows, elevated and without a UAC prompt (via Task Scheduler).
- Hotkeys — global, configurable shortcuts for Toggle / Left / Right / Auto.
- DNS per adapter — presets (Cloudflare, Google, Quad9), manual entry, or Auto (DHCP).
- Logs — optional log file (with a chosen folder) recording switches, DNS changes, profile actions, resets, etc.
- Theme follows Windows — dark or light automatically, no toggle needed.
- 8 languages — English, Русский, Español, Deutsch, Français, 中文, 日本語, 한국어 — switch with the button next to the title.
- Network safety buttons — restore automatic metrics, flush the DNS cache, or a full network-stack reset (with a styled confirmation).
- Minimize to tray — the widget hides in the notification area; proxies keep running.
- Windows 10 or 11
- At least two network adapters
- Administrator rights (needed to change metrics, DNS, and create the autostart task; requested automatically)
- PowerShell 5.1 (built into Windows) or PowerShell 7+ — the widget uses whichever it finds
- ForceBindIP — only if you plan to use "injection" rules. Installed separately.
Copy the program folder wherever you like. To run, double-click LAN-Switcher.exe and accept the administrator prompt (UAC).
Program files that must sit next to the exe:
| File | Purpose |
|---|---|
LAN-Switcher.exe |
The widget itself |
LAN-Switcher-Proxy.ps1 |
Proxy engine (needed for proxy rules) |
LAN-Switcher.ico |
Window and tray icon |
User data (rules, settings, profiles, launchers, log) lives separately in %APPDATA%\LANSwitcher, so you can move the exe anywhere without losing anything.
Click the toggle (or an adapter's name/block) to switch priority. The active side is highlighted; the dots and latency below reflect live connectivity, and the traffic totals sit under them. The window is draggable; by default it appears in the bottom-right corner.
Opens a scrollable, resizable settings window with sections:
- Metrics — the priority number (lower = higher priority) and the secondary one. Both ≥ 1, priority smaller than secondary. "Save and apply" commits them.
- Profiles — type a name and Save to snapshot the current state (priority + metrics, app rules, per-adapter DNS). Pick a profile from the dropdown, then Apply to restore it, or ✕ to delete.
- Autostart — a checkbox to start LAN Switcher at logon. It creates a Task Scheduler task with the highest privileges, which runs elevated without a UAC prompt.
- Hotkeys — assign global shortcuts for Toggle / Left / Right / Auto: click "Set", press a combo with Ctrl/Alt/Shift, Esc to cancel.
- DNS — per adapter: preset buttons (Cloudflare / Google / Quad9), manual primary/secondary fields, Apply, or Auto (DHCP) to revert.
- Logs — enable the log and choose its folder; "Show in folder" opens it in Explorer.
Important: don't set the priority metric to
1if you use a VPN. VPN tunnels usually have metric 5, and a value of 1 would make the physical adapter more important than the tunnel — the VPN would "break". Keep the priority in the 10–30 range.
Opens the rules window. Browse for an app's .exe, choose the type (injection / proxy) and the adapter, then Add.
Each rule has: ▶ launch through the chosen adapter, ? check which adapter its traffic really uses, ↗ create a desktop shortcut, ✕ delete.
- Auto metrics — return both adapters to automatic metric selection (Windows default).
- Flush DNS —
ipconfig /flushdns. - Network reset — full reset:
flushdns+netsh winsock reset+netsh int ip reset, behind a styled "Reset / Cancel" confirmation. Requires a reboot.
The — button minimizes to the tray (proxies keep running); double-click the tray icon to restore; exit via X or the tray menu (which kills the proxies). The EN/RU/… button next to the title cycles through the 8 interface languages.
Injection (ForceBindIP) launches the app and binds its network sockets to the chosen adapter. The app opens with all its normal settings. Limitations: it can only bind a process it launches (not an already-running one), single-instance apps must be fully closed first, and Microsoft Store (UWP) apps are not supported.
Proxy spins up a tiny local proxy server bound to the chosen adapter's IP and launches a Chromium browser through it (--proxy-server). This is more reliable for browsers, which are multi-process and resist injection. The browser opens in a separate per-adapter profile — the price of guaranteed proxy application; after a one-time sign-in the profile remembers everything.
%APPDATA%\LANSwitcher\
├── rules.json — "app → adapter" rules
├── config.json — metrics, language, autostart, logging, hotkeys, last adapter
├── profiles.json — saved profiles
├── launchers\ — generated launchers for proxy shortcuts
└── lan-switcher.log — log file (if logging is enabled; folder configurable)
%LOCALAPPDATA%\LANSwitcher\Profiles\ — separate browser profiles for proxy rules
The logic is written in PowerShell + WPF (XAML). The LAN-Switcher.exe is built from LAN-Switcher.ps1 via ps2exe.
To rebuild after editing the source:
- Close the widget ("Exit" in the tray).
- Run
Build.bat(no admin rights needed).
Build.bat checks the syntax, installs ps2exe and draws the icon if needed, closes the old instance, and builds a fresh exe with the embedded icon, metadata, and an admin manifest.
You can also run it without compiling — double-click LAN-Switcher.bat to run the .ps1 source directly (handy for testing edits before building, and as a fallback if antivirus won't let the compiled exe through).
| File | Purpose |
|---|---|
LAN-Switcher.ps1 |
Widget source (all logic + the built-in language pack) |
LAN-Switcher-Proxy.ps1 |
Proxy engine |
LAN-Switcher.exe |
Compiled widget |
LAN-Switcher.ico |
Icon |
LAN-Switcher.bat |
Run source without compiling |
Build.ps1 / Build.bat |
Rebuild the exe |
- Priority is set via
Set-NetIPInterface -InterfaceMetric, persisted by Windows. On launch, the widget forcibly restores the last selected adapter, so the state is always unambiguous. - Internet check — a background runspace TCP-connects to
1.1.1.1:443with the outgoing socket bound to each adapter's IP, measuring latency; results are marshaled to the UI so the window never blocks. - Injection — the third-party ForceBindIP utility injects a DLL that intercepts network calls and substitutes the adapter's IP.
- Proxy — a small custom HTTP/HTTPS(CONNECT) proxy on .NET sockets binds its outgoing socket to the chosen adapter's IP; HTTPS is tunneled, not decrypted.
- Autostart avoids the UAC prompt by using a Task Scheduler task with "highest privileges" that runs at logon.
- Adapter auto-detection — the names in the settings are only preferences; if they don't exist, the widget finds two physical adapters itself. Rule bindings are stored by GUID and self-heal when moved to another PC.
- Translations are embedded in the script (a
key → per-language stringtable), so they ship inside the exe.
- Regular (Win32) apps only. Injection works with classic desktop programs. Microsoft Store (UWP) apps run in a sandbox and are not supported.
- Proxy is for Chromium browsers only (Chrome, Edge, Brave, Opera, Vivaldi, Yandex and the like). For other apps you can point them at
127.0.0.1:<port>manually if they support proxies. - Injection can't attach to an already-running process — the app must start through the widget or a shortcut. Single-instance programs must be fully closed first.
- The proxy browser launches in a separate profile (otherwise the proxy flag won't apply): no bookmarks/logins the first time, but the profile persists.
- Possible DNS leak with the proxy: the hostname is resolved by the system resolver, though the connection to the site still egresses through the chosen adapter. (You can pin a DNS per adapter in Settings.)
- This is a manual switcher by design — there is no automatic failover.
- Administrator rights are required.
- Designed for two adapters. Support for 3+ is on the roadmap.
- A metric of
1breaks VPNs — keep the priority metric in the 10–30 range. LAN-Switcher.exeis not code-signed. On first run Windows SmartScreen may show "unknown publisher" — expected for any unsigned exe (More info → Run anyway). On some PCs antivirus may flag the "local proxy + injection" combo heuristically. In that case, run from source (LAN-Switcher.bat) or build the exe yourself withBuild.bat— the code is open and auditable.- The project is not affiliated with ForceBindIP or ps2exe; those are third-party tools by their respective authors.
MIT © 2026 HumBearPig
- ForceBindIP — Richard Stanway (used for injection rules).
- ps2exe — Markus Scholtes (compiles the script into an exe).