So recently I was on a friend’s computer trying to troubleshoot some network issue and when I went to adjust the settings on one of the network adapters, I noticed something interesting I had not seen before:
When encountering Microsoft Virtual WiFi Miniport-adapter Driver driver problems you must decide whether to fix these yourself (which sometimes get complicated), or to use a driver installer, which is easier, but costs around $29.95. Hello, My computer is telling me that there is an update to the Microsoft Virtual WiFi Miniport Adapters. This is a Dell computer, windows 7. It has found an update, however, I am receiving a messeage. Microsoft Virtual WiFi Miniport Adapter Okay, so I was browsing through the adapter settings in windows 7 and came across a Wiresless Conenction 2 which is a Microsoft Virtual WiFi Miniport Adapter. I don't remember seeing this on the list before, and it suddenly seems to have appeared. Has anyone else experienced this problem?? TIA: Network.
In addition to the normal WiFi network, there was also a Wireless Network Connection 2 and the adapter name was “Microsoft Virtual WiFi Miniport Adapter“. I had never seen this before, so it made me very curious. After some reading, I learned it’s a new feature in Windows 7 and it actually can let you do some pretty cool stuff with your wireless network card.
In this article, I’ll explain what the virtual WiFi mini port adapter is and how you can use it on your Windows 7 PC. Apparently, this is a feature that is still in beta and therefore you won’t find very much official documentation on how to use it.
Basically, Virtual WiFi is a technology that virtualizes your network adapter much in the same way VMWare virtualizes your entire operating system. Once virtualized, you can basically convert one physical wireless adapter into two virtual ones. This allows you to then connect one virtual network adapter to your regular wireless network and use the other virtual adapter to connect to another network such as an ad-hoc network or to create a WiFi hotspot and allow others to connect to your Windows 7 machine wirelessly like they would connect to a normal wireless access point.
To play around with creating your own wireless access point, you can go about it in two ways: use the command line in Windows 7 or download a third party program that provides a nice GUI interface and some extra features. I’ll show you how to use both. If you’re a little tech-savvy, I would suggest you use the command line as the third-party program is not free.
Setup Wireless Access Point using Command Line
The first thing you can to do is share the Internet connection on your main network adapter so that when people connect using the virtual network adapter, they will be able to access the Internet through your Windows 7 computer. You can do this by going to Network and Sharing Center and clicking on Change Adapter Settings. Click on the Sharing tab and check the box that says Allow other network users to connect through this computer’s Internet connection.
In the drop-down under Home networking connection, make sure to pick the name of the virtual WiFi mini port adapter. It may be something like Wireless Network Connection 2 or 3, etc. Now to setup the wireless access point on the virtual network adapter, open the command prompt (Start, type cmd) and type in the following command:
In the line above, you need to change VirtualNetworkName to the desired name of your wireless network and change Password Microsoft word advantages and disadvantages. to whatever password you want on the network. Note that all virtual wireless access points have to use WPA2-PSK (AES) encryption no matter what. Once it has been setup, you can enable it by typing in the following line:
To see details about the hosted network, such as how many clients are connected, type in the following command:
And that’s about it! Other users should now be able to see your newly created wireless access point in their list of wireless networks. They should also be able to connect and connect to the Internet.
If that was all too much work for you, then you can use a third party app.
Setup Wireless Access Point using Connectify
If you travel a lot or end up somewhere where you have to connect an Ethernet cable to your computer to connect to the Internet and you don’t feel like fooling around with the command prompt, you can always check out a program called Connectify to do the work for you.
This little app has a free and a Pro version. If you just want to share an Internet connection on Windows 7, then the free version is perfectly fine. The pro version has a bunch of other features, which might be useful depending on your needs, otherwise I suggest not buying pro.
Once installed, you just name your network, type a password, and choose the Internet connection to share. Sounds similar to what we did above right? Connectify just provides a nice interface for doing the same thing.
So now you know what the Virtual WiFi Miniport Adapter is and hopefully you’ll find it useful! If not, you can always disable it by going to the Control Panel, Device Manager and disabling it under Network Controllers. Enjoy!
Have you see the Microsoft virtual WiFi miniport adapter on your laptop and wondered what it was? Want to know how it got there or what to do with it? Do you need the Microsoft virtual WiFi miniport adapter? Want to know how remove the Microsoft virtual WiFi miniport adapter from your device? By the end of this tutorial you will know the answers to all those questions and more!
Also see our article How To Speed Up Windows 10 – The Ultimate Guide
You will likely see the adapter when checking out Network Connections in Windows. It may show up as Wireless Network Connection 2 and be labeled Microsoft virtual WiFi miniport adapter underneath. It will likely not be connected, or shouldn’t be anyway. So what is it and why is it there?
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What is the Microsoft virtual WiFi miniport adapter
The Microsoft virtual WiFi miniport adapter has been around since Windows 7 and features on laptops and mobile devices with WiFi cards. It is a virtual adapter that allows Windows to split a network in two, either to act as a wireless bridge or WiFi hotspot. These are useful if you need to extend a wireless connection or provide WiFi for other devices but does come with a performance overhead.
For example, if you connect your laptop to your only Ethernet port, you can make your laptop a wireless hotspot for other devices to connect to in order to gain internet access. As a network card can only connect to a single network at a time, Microsoft introduced the Microsoft virtual WiFi miniport adapter to overcome that limitation.
It uses virtualization to allow the network card to appear as two separate ones. In the laptop example above, the physical card will connect to your Ethernet network to provide a primary connection. The Microsoft virtual WiFi miniport adapter will simulate another connection which would provide the hotspot or bridge for other devices to connect to. It is a useful feature in some circumstances but if you don’t use it, it is best to disable it.
Leaving Microsoft virtual WiFi miniport adapter enabled can slow down your primary wireless connection. It likely comes with a small performance and battery overhead too but these will likely be very small.
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Do I need the Microsoft virtual WiFi miniport adapter?
Unless you use your computer as a WiFi hotspot or as a bridge for other devices, you do not need the Microsoft virtual WiFi miniport adapter. It is a great idea by Microsoft but is only useful in certain situations. As there is a network overhead involved with having the adapter running, you may receive a marginal network performance gain from disabling it.
If you already have a wireless network and you don’t envision using your laptop or device as a wireless access point then you are unlikely to need the Microsoft virtual WiFi miniport adapter running.
How to disable the Microsoft virtual WiFi miniport adapter
If you’re sure you won’t need the Microsoft virtual WiFi miniport adapter, it takes less than a minute to disable the hosted network it provides and to remove the device. As it’s virtual, disabling is just a configuration change.
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You can either turn off the adapter or remove the driver to make the change permanent. Turning off gives you the opportunity to use it at a later time if you think you might need it.
To turn off the Microsoft virtual WiFi miniport adapter
- Open a command line window as an administrator.
- Type ‘netsh wlan stop hostednetwork’ and hit Enter. This turns off the hosted network.
- Type ‘netsh wlan set hostednetwork mode=disallow’ and hit Enter. This stops Windows from restarting the hosted network.
This alone is enough to disable the Microsoft virtual WiFi miniport adapter. It will no longer appear in your Network Connections and will no longer take up any of your network.
To remove the Microsoft virtual WiFi miniport adapter completely:
Microsoft Virtual Wifi Miniport Adapter Dell Computer
- Open a command line window as an administrator.
- Type ‘net start VirtualWiFiService’ and hit Enter.
- Open Control Panel and Network and Sharing Center.
- Right click the Microsoft virtual WiFi miniport adapter and select Properties.
- Select Uninstall from the popup window and follow the wizard.
- Type ‘net stop VirtualWiFiService’ and hit Enter.
- Type ‘VirtualWiFiSvc.exe -remove’ and hit Enter.
Microsoft Virtual Wifi Miniport Adapter Fix
This process enables the service so we can remove the driver and device and then disables and then removes the executable so it cannot run again. This is more relevant if you know you won’t need the Microsoft virtual WiFi miniport adapter on your device. If you change your mind at a later date, you can always download the driver again directly from Microsoft or from your device vendor’s website.