This morning I upgraded my system to Windows 10 2004, the upgrade went smooth and was through Windows Update. I am using Hyper-V as my virtualization program for virtual machines and to provide extra layer of protection to the system through core isolation.
After the upgrade, I noticed that a new Virtual Switch was created with the name "vEthernet (Ethernet)" where "Ethernet" within the parentheses is the name of my primary network adapter. Also noticed this behavior has a specific pattern of creating new vSwitches correspond to the adapters you have, e.g. if you created a new Virtual Switch and restarted the system, a new additional switch will appear with the name "vEthernet (your-new-switch-name)".
Tried to remove Hyper-V and reinstall it but no luck.
I am aware of a similar question on SuperUser but has no answers on it.
Any clues for the root of the problem?
Solution:
This post resumes the results of the study done by one poster:
Windows Sandbox on Win10 2004 now creates vEthernet interface for every physical NIC?
His conclusion is that these new virtual switches were related to the feature ofWindows Sandbox. Uninstalling the Sandbox inControl Panel > Programs and Features > Turn Windows features on or offand reboot removes these switches. If you wish to keep Windows Sandbox,you will need to also keep the switches.
I reproduce below his account:
I updated to Win10 2004 (Build 19041.208 as of this writing) and I’venoticed that on my system with Hyper-V and Windows Sandbox installed,I now have an auto-created vEthernet interface for every physicalEthernet interface on my system. Each one is named "vEthernet(Physical interface name)". This is occurring despite that fact thatonly virtual switch I have on my host system is the Default Switch.
When I run "Get-VMNetworkAdapter -ManagementOS", I see multipleadapters named "Container NIC xxxxxx", each showing as attached to theDefault Switch.
All of these vEthernet interfaces have auto-assigned 172.x.x.x IPaddresses. They cannot be deleted in Network Connections (option isgrayed out) and if I use Device Manager to uninstall the actualHyper-V Virtual Ethernet adapter device associated with theseinterfaces, they reappear after rebooting. This behavior persistedeven after I completely uninstalled Hyper-V, but when I reinstalled itand instead uninstalled Windows Sandbox, the vEthernet interfaces alldisappeared, except for the one associated with the Default Switch,which I expected to remain. And at that point, running"Get-VMNetworkAdapter -ManagementOS" returned only one result.