Since Windows 7, Microsoft has built in the virtual WiFi technology into Windows that gives the ability to turn any Windows machine with the supported wireless adapter into a wireless hotspot natively without the helps from any 3rd party tools. A pretty feature could be very useful and handy but lacks of a pretty and easy-to-use user interface.
Let’s take look how it works first.
Open Command Prompt window as Administrator
You can do so press Win+X and choose command prompt (admin) from the list.
Type the following command to check if you have a supported wireless device.
netsh wlan show drivers
“hosted network supported” : yes”
If yes, type the following command to set wireless parameters such as SSID, and passcode, and start the service
netsh wlan set hostednetwork mode=allow ssid=myssid key=password
replace myssid and password with your own choice.
netsh wlan start hostednetwork
Turn on Internet Connection Sharing on the network adapter that has the access to the Internet. You can do so by
- Going to Control Panel, Network & Internet, and Network Connections.
- Right click the adapter and go to properties.
- Turn on the option “Allow other network users to connect through this computer’s Internet connection” under Sharing tab. Make sure to pick the enabled Wireless virtual adapter as the Home networking connection.
This may be a bit cumbersome as once you restart your pc, the settings are reverted. You can run the attached script as administrator after having completed the above steps once and you’re off to the races.