Rebellious routers, DHCP servers that refuse to cooperate, download clients that require port forwarding, retro gaming LAN parties... there are plenty of reasons to change your computer's IP address. Now, almost all advanced configuration sections in Windows 10 are a moving target, but fortunately, the entire classic network menu remains (more or less) in the same place. Today we review the process to get there through different paths.

Changing Your Computer's IP Address: How to Change IP in Windows 10
Changing your computer's IP address

Changing the IP: A Classic

In an ideal world, the user would not need to intervene on the assignment of addresses or IP numbers. The relationship between the operating system, the network card, and the modem/router remains in perfect harmony, and any conflict point is negotiated automatically, with the help of another IP number within the configured DHCP range. In theory, the user never knows what happened.

However, the truth is that we do not live in an ideal world, and sometimes a certain degree of manual persuasion is necessary on the IP number. A recurring example is port forwarding for BitTorrent exchange clients, or why not, eMule itself, which still works very well.

(Editor's note: This guide is based on Windows 10 20H2, the latest available at the time of writing.)

How to change your computer's IP address

Via Settings

Changing Your Computer's IP Address: How to Change IP in Windows 10
IP configuration in the 'new' menu
  1. Open Windows Settings
  2. Go to Network & Internet
  3. Click on the Properties of the active connection
  4. Scroll down to the IP settings section
  5. Click Edit and change Automatic (DHCP) to Manual
  6. Turn on the IPv4 toggle and enter your parameters
  7. Click Save

The hybrid option

Changing Your Computer's IP Address: How to Change IP in Windows 10
This will take you directly to the adapters section
  1. Open Windows Settings
  2. Go to Network & Internet
  3. In Status, click Change adapter options
  4. Right-click on the network card and select Properties
  5. Choose Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4) and click Properties
  6. Select Use the following addresses for IP and DNS fields
  7. Enter your values and click OK
Changing Your Computer's IP Address: How to Change IP in Windows 10
The adapters section, and the advanced properties of the network card on the right

The classic route

Changing Your Computer's IP Address: How to Change IP in Windows 10
In the Control Panel
  1. Open the Start menu, type Control Panel and enter it
  2. Switch to icon view and enter Network and Sharing Center
  3. Click Change adapter settings
  4. Follow steps 4-7 from the previous option

In Summary

Some users have reported issues when changing the IP address using the first method (Windows refuses to apply changes, and other similar errors), so do not hesitate to explore the other options. Do you need to know your current IP number? That's easy: open a system console and use the command ipconfig to get the data. Do you want to find and use the fastest DNS for your connection? We can help you with that too. Changing your PC's IP is easy, don't let Windows stop you. Good luck!