Fixing Intel Wi-Fi Stuttering on Latest Driver (Global BG Scan Blocking)

Recently, while using Moonlight + Sunshine for game streaming on my Surface Pro 8 (PC wired to the router, Surface using Wi-Fi), even with full Wi-Fi signal strength, I experienced occasional audio crackling and video stuttering. Running PingPlotter in the background for network testing revealed that every 10 minutes, latency would spike for a few seconds, causing Moonlight’s audio crackling and video stuttering.

After some troubleshooting, I pinpointed the culprit: the Intel Wi-Fi adapter’s Global Background Scan (Global BG Scan) feature. This function is designed to periodically scan surrounding Wi-Fi signals to optimize connections or switch to a stronger access point (AP). However, in scenarios like game streaming, which demand low latency and high stability, background scanning disrupts the network, causing video and audio stuttering.

In older versions of Intel Wi-Fi drivers, resolving this issue was straightforward: you could navigate to the network adapter’s properties in Device Manager, find the “Global BG Scan blocking” option, and set it to “Always” or “On Good RSSI.” This effectively disabled or limited background scanning, fixing the annoying 10-minute stutter. However, Intel’s brilliant engineers believed their improved scanning logic wouldn’t cause user disruption, so they removed this option entirely.

This “unnecessary” option, despite complaints from numerous users over three years, has still not been restored.

Solution: Restoring the Hidden Background Scanning Settings

Fortunately, only the settings UI was removed, not the underlying driver logic. After some research, I found a way to restore this setting.

1. Open the Registry Editor (Win + R, type regedit), and navigate to the following path:

Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\Class\{4d36e972-e325-11ce-bfc1-08002be10318}

You’ll see a series of numbered folders, such as 0001, 0002, 0003, etc. Open each one and look for a key named AdapterModel in the right pane, which will show your Wi-Fi adapter’s model (e.g., mine is Intel(R) Wi-Fi 6 AX201 160MHz). Write down the corresponding folder number (e.g., my Wi-Fi adapter is in the 0002 folder).

2. Create a new text file named wifi.reg and paste the following content into it. Note: Replace the 0002 in the code below with the folder number corresponding to your Wi-Fi adapter.

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

; Replace the 0002 in the next line with the folder number of your Wi-Fi adapter
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\Class\{4d36e972-e325-11ce-bfc1-08002be10318}\0002\Ndi\Params\BgScanGlobalBlocking]
"ParamDesc"="Global BG Scan blocking"
"Type"="enum"
"Default"="0"

; Replace the 0002 in the next line with the folder number of your Wi-Fi adapter
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\Class\{4d36e972-e325-11ce-bfc1-08002be10318}\0002\Ndi\Params\BgScanGlobalBlocking\enum]
"0"="Never"
"1"="On Good RSSI"
"2"="Always"

3. Save the file and double-click wifi.reg to confirm importing it into the registry.

4. After importing the registry file, open Device Manager (Win + X, select “Device Manager”), locate your Wi-Fi adapter (e.g., Intel(R) Wi-Fi 6 AX201 160MHz), right-click and select “Properties,” then switch to the “Advanced” tab.
You’ll now see the “Global BG Scan blocking” option! It has three settings:

• Never: Never restrict background scanning (Default, causes stuttering every 10 minutes).
• On Good RSSI: Disable background scanning when signal strength is good.
• Always: Always disable background scanning (Recommended, but may affect Wi-Fi roaming —— Your computer won’t switch to a stronger AP even if the signal of current AP is weak).

Testing Again

After setting it to On Good RSSI and testing again with PingPlotter, I found that with the latest driver, the stuttering was gone (the packet loss in the middle was due to me reconnecting to the network).

Coxxs

This article (https://dev.moe/en/3183) is an original work by Coxxs. Please credit the original link when reposting.