I have downloaded and installed the latest software and was ready to setup a guest network, using YT videos. But I soon found out that the user interface of Winbox 4 does not resemble the user interface of Winbox 3. Wireless is called WiFi, but from there on, the instructions and screens don’t match anymore. Winbox 4 has been available for 5 months now. The MikroTik manual isn’t updated with descriptions based on Winbox 4. I don’t understand this. Am I looking in the wrong place? Since I will need much more info than only basic info to setup a guest network, I did not put my question in the thread about setting up a guest network. I guess the easiest solution would be to use Winbox 3, but why would MikroTik publish version 4, if it would not have benefits to use it. I appreciate any guidance.
Hi. How are you? To say that Winbox 4 offers no benefits is to misunderstand the differences between a version that's over ten years old, outdated, lacking native compatibility, and offering no innovation. It doesn't require a manual when the configuration is the same; changing the name to the correct one isn't difficult. And Winbox 4 was released over a year ago. I would recommend using it, and you'll become familiar with it over time.
Actually, that indicates to me that you are using Routeros with either the wifi-qcom or the wifi-qcom-ac package rather than the wireless package.
Try and you'll see, it is also called "wifi" in Winbox 3. It has nothing to do with Winbox itself.
Winbox 3 and 4 are very similar, so you'll be able to follow instructions with minimal effort. If you want the exact layout, use that version.
Everyone is allowed their preference. I personally find 3 simpler and nicer. Currently both are up to date, and both work.
However, your Wireless-WiFi difficulty in not related to Winbox at all. You'll find the same menu in both versions. With the change in wireless drivers from the "wireless" to the "wifi-*" packages, the way of configuring them changed considerably. I would suggest finding a video that deals with the new method of configuration. (The wifi menu was introduced at the end of 2023, so it's probably not unreasonable to assume that a newer video is available.)
Maybe I'm a little too "old-school" but I wonder what is the sense of OP thougts?
- What level of expertise is needed to "install" WB4 that it needs watching videos? MT programs are mostly 1-file zips or just exec to download.
- If OP watched YT videos how to install WB4 then should be aware that UI is different. How it could be "found" after installation?
- Is it really so hard to find similarities between WB3 & WB4 and reinterpret them to WB4 standards?
- Configuring guest network could be done with CLI, that changed too, so WinBox is almost not needed for that.
- How lack of examples with WB4 screenshots influences on "no benefits"? Native Linux & Mac versions are "no benefits"? Really?
We could disscus usability&efficiency shortcomings but as a whole it's a try to make a big step ahead. The fact that we are "slipping a bit" now does not affect the potential end result.
You are watching videos of older RouterOS setups. Wireless is (in general) no longer the default choice. Instead WiFi has replaced it. This has nothing to do with Winbox3 Vs Winbox4. You just need to watch more up-to-date YouTube videos.
More to the point, watch videos on setting up Routeros, not videos on using Winbox.
First things first. You don't go mountain climbing without familiarizing yourself with the equipment. However while hanging on the wall you shouldn't complain that the color of the rope is different than the one you watched on YT but you should be able to adapt yourself to new conditions quite quckly.
Normis I am, I eat green eggs and ham while using winbox4 !!
Try it, you will like it you see, on a train, on a bus, in a plane…………….. Normis I am.
Oh, hi! I thought I had deleted my post. I found YT videos using WB4, so I went on with that. It is kind of puzzling to see a release candidate being used as a production tool. Yes, indeed, I watched very old videos. While watching applicable videos, I climbed the learning curve. Sometimes redoing things when they can be done in a more scalable way.
I am migrating from a home network with a three Fritz!Box router mesh, in which the guest network was used for smart things, like my solar converter. I started out by wanting to selfhost NextCloud. This project exploded! So, I’m starting now with a full renovation of my home network, while day-to-day business goes on. Three kids have the highest possible uptime requirements. A bit like mountain climbing indeed.
So, the status now, is that I have a master router, ready to be attached to the cable modem, another router for the top floor and a ceiling ap for the middle floor, all listening to the master router for wifi (capsman). I have already tested the guest network, the wireless iot network is ready too. The rest is similar to the current state of the network. I’m almost ready for thorough testing.
Indeed, when one is a bit more familiar with the specific vocabulary, thing do get easier. The most difficult was to find how CAP and CAPsMAN could be set. The manual may be excellent, but is so difficult to grasp if the only thing you are looking for is how to activate it.
I shouldn’t complain! I learned a lot and almost have my new network running. Thanks for the replies. I may be back with more questions.
This is just a madness from MikroTik:
-First, they just stopped improving current WinBox 3
-Then, they started to officially recommend to use beta product 
-After that, they published its screenshots on the website, like it's a current product
-And finally, it looks like this half-baked rc (read beta) is gonna become release soon.
Never use rc/beta in production, especially when it actually turns into beta/alpha in this case.
Winbox 3 is mature, highly dependable, no bugs. fast. efficient.
Most "innovative" frameworks are essentially just high-level wrappers around the Win32 API which is the undisputed standard In 2026 on a Windows platform. **Winbox v3 uses native Win32 API and is 100% compatible with Windows 10 and 11 (Home, Pro, and Enterprise).
Innovation for the sake of innovation? ... What are you smoking?
Ohhh, this is a real disease, that touches many products (and not only IT world). There are many apps and especially sites that are regularly "refreshed" to create "hard work" impression, attract more attention and so on, though actually it brings almost no advantages, it only annoys users, who got used to them and causes inconvenience.
But to be fair, there are some improvements in WB 4, though I counted only 2-3 of them, all other changes are regression.
Web crawlers and WWW positioning systems do expect changes and add bonus for "something in the content changed". No matter what and no mattar if it had sense but "the change" is the "advantage". If we add new "AI friendly content" then we all end with moronic pages.
I'm sick of all these pages designed with one simple template:
- "Abstract: On that page you could learn how to use function blahblah."
- "The usage of blahblah is: ...... a few lines of explanation/examples, mostly copy of manual + (1)"
- "Summary: That page learned you how to use function blahblah (mostly copy of (1)."
If you add up the lazines (just a general opinion, no offence to particular person) of people who tend to watch videos over reading and to have things "served exactly the way they expect" as they do not want to think too much, then the new style of pages/software is explained. Any deviation from the exact expected effect is treated as the error and makes them annoyed.
Paraphrasing Copernicus law: "bad money drives out good":
"Bad pages/software drives out good"
Unfortunately, with the current stable RouterOS version, if you need containers then WinBox 3 can no longer be used to create/edit containers with the GUI, only with the CLI.
@CGGXANNX, are you sure that solving the container management compatibility issue was the primary objective of the change?
The official narrative was to bring cross-platform compatibility to Linux and Mac OsX platforms, IMO.
It was mismanaged and the “optics” aren’t looking good.
Mikrotik means binary “native”, while community expects UI and experience native to a platform of their choice.
There is a disconnect here.
No, I mean that at this moment, WinBox 3 is not "highly dependable, no bugs" because it has an important broken functionality on the "Container" form.
Well, it remains "mature, highly dependable, no bugs. fast. efficient", BUT misses some new features related to containers.
But there is AFAICU nothing prohibiting from using v3 for EVERYTHING BUT containers and v4 ONLY for containers.
The best of both worlds.
Not everyone need containers. The majority of real world use cases do not run containers.
@CGGXANNX, From the end user perspective, v3 doesn’t have a broken container functionality, it is more accurate to say that these container features currently are not implemented.
The developer had decided not to ship the container functionality as a stand alone tool and made a choice to break user experience instead.