What determines whether Windows creates a new network connection or chooses one of the existing ones?

Question

System administration

When computers are brought up after a power outage, the workstations boot before the servers. Accordingly, when network connections are raised, there is no domain network yet. And this connection will be active until reconnection or until reboot. And network policies are applied to connect to the default public network. Worst of all, it can be "public network", "public network 1", "public network n".
Question: how does Windows decide if it has seen this network before and has an appropriate profile, or is it an unfamiliar network?

Answer 1

What you're talking about is "Network Locations"
Whenever there's a change in the network - whether it's getting a new IP or a different default gateway, or maybe a new network interface, the NLA service captures that change.
A new network profile is configured, where all information about existing network interfaces is stored, whether it is authenticated to the domain, the MAC address of the default gateway, and the like, after which a specific GUID is assigned. After that, the NLA service informs the Firewall, which in turn applies the policies for this profile.
What is NLA: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/previous-versions...
It is difficult to say why a new name is generated for the Network Location every time, perhaps this causes a short Leasing time on DHCP, i.e. every time a new IP + an inaccessible CD at the time the machine starts, (not sure, but many administrators think it's better) - look and set at least 8 hours, and preferably 24 (select by experience).
Perhaps something else, start reading the documentation at the link, then you will find I think who is to blame, and what to do.

Answer 2

how does Windows decide if it has seen this network before

No way. For the simple reason that she has no eyes, and she never sees any networks.