When trying to create a virtual Wi-Fi network using the netsh wlan start hostednetwork command, the user may encounter a message that the hosting of such a network was unsuccessful. In this article, I will tell you what this error is and also explain how to fix the “The Hosted Network Couldn’t be Started” problem on your PC.
Among the reasons for the netsh wlan start hostednetwork error, I would note the following:
Fixing netsh wlan start hostednetwork error
First, check if you have a Wi-Fi adapter on your computer. If for a laptop and netbook this is implied a priori, then for owners of desktop computers everything is not so clear. Look for the Wi-Fi adapter in Device Manager (the “Network Adapters” section), where it is usually listed as a wireless network adapter.
It also happens that Wi-Fi on a PC is turned off by the user himself (either through the button to turn off the Wi-Fi module, or by pressing a key combination, for example, for me, it’s Fn+F2). Make sure your Wi-Fi module is enabled and working. So what to do?
Method 1. Use a virtual adapter
Now you can connect your virtual network using the standard command “netsh wlan start hostednetwork”.
Method 2. Restart the adapter
- Go back to Device Manager and find “Network Adapters”.
- Find the name of our main wireless network adapter.
- Right-click and select “Disable” first.
- And then a couple of seconds after turning it off, select “Enable”.
Method 3. Use commands
If the previous two methods did not help you start a hosted network netsh wlan start hostednetwork, then Microsoft experts recommend doing the following:
How this all looks visually can be seen in the video:
Method 4. Check whether our adapter supports a virtual access point
- Press the key combination Win+R, and in the window that appears, type cmd.
- On the command line, write netsh wlan show drivers and press enter.
- In the resulting result, we check the item about supporting a hosted network, and if it says “no,” then your adapter is not suitable for creating a virtual Wi-Fi network.
- In this case, we can only advise you to buy an external Wi-Fi adapter that uses a USB connection for its operation.
Conclusion
In most cases, the specified problem with netsh wlan show drivers is solved by enabling a virtual adapter, which is often hidden from the user's eyes. You can also advise restarting your Wi-Fi adapter; in addition, some users were helped by a set of tips from Microsoft specialists on disabling and enabling the hosted network. Well, for those who do not have a Wi-Fi adapter at all, we can advise you to purchase such an adapter at the nearest specialized store.
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In situations where Internet access is needed for many devices, but there is no router, you can use a computer or laptop that has a WiFi adapter. Each computer equipped with such a device can act as a resource for distributing wireless Internet. Set up your PC or laptop and it will become an access point for all devices within its service area. To do this, the network adapter must support Microsoft virtual WiFi miniport adapter - the ability to create a virtual adapter.
Starting from OS version 7, the Microsoft virtual WiFi miniport adapter driver is built into the kernel. In Windows 10 it is called "Microsoft Hosted Network Virtual Adapter". All laptops since 2008 include a Wi-Fi module that is capable of performing virtual functionality and automatically acting as a wireless network source. However, sometimes there are situations when something goes wrong and this whole scheme does not work.
How to check the operation of the Microsoft virtual WiFi miniport adapter?
You can read about launching wireless distribution from a laptop here. If all actions are completed successfully, the Microsoft virtual WiFi miniport adapter for version 7 will appear in the task manager. 
In Windows 10, to see virtual hardware, you must do the following:
- Right-click (RMB) on the Start button and select options.
- Go to the “Network and Internet” section.
- Click Adapter Settings.
- And then right-click on your new network, which you distribute from a PC or laptop.
- In the window that opens, you will see the name of the adapter and all its characteristics.
- Pay attention to the number of components. The devices for them can be seen in the device manager.
Here you can remove the adapter by clicking on the “Delete” button.
Where to download and how to install
If the Microsoft virtual WiFi miniport adapter is missing and the distribution does not work, you can download the driver. There are many resources online that offer this software, but it can be dangerous. We remind you that the driver is present in the kernel and is not supplied separately by the official developer. Therefore, if you downloaded it somewhere, then this is a “non-native” Microsoft development and it is unknown what consequences its installation will lead to.
The best option for Windows is to download updates. In this case, all outdated and deleted drivers should be updated automatically.
If this doesn't help, manually update your network adapter driver. To do this, launch Device Manager. Right-click on the desired hardware in the Network Adapters section. Choose automatic update. 
You can also download a new driver from the manufacturer's website. For example, for a Lenovo laptop, go to https://support.lenovo.com/ru/ru/ and enter your model number. 
Go to the Drivers and Software tab. 
And look for the devices you need. Available drivers that can be downloaded will be displayed here. After this, all you have to do is run the downloaded file and follow the instructions.
How to remove Microsoft virtual WiFi miniport adapter?
In some cases, wars arise between the virtual WiFi adapter and real network equipment. Then neither one nor the other works normally and access to wireless communication is difficult. Neither rebooting nor disabling virtual distribution will help here.
To remove an adapter using the command line, open it and type netsh wlan set hostednetwork mode=disallow. This will make the virtual network inactive and the adapter will be removed.
In the network management section, you can see that the network has disappeared, and with it the Microsoft virtual WiFi miniport adapter has disappeared.
But the instructions provided did not address the main problems that users may encounter when creating a virtual access point. One of the most common errors occurs when starting a Wireless Hosted Network through the command line. This procedure is performed using the command netsh wlan start hostednetwork. If the operation completes successfully, the message “The hosted network has started” should appear, but in some cases the error “The hosted network could not be started” appears instead. The group or resource is not in the correct state to perform the required operation."
That is, simply put, the laptop (or computer) adapter is not ready to work as a Wi-Fi access point and distribute the Internet to other devices wirelessly. How to solve this problem? Let's figure it out.
Checking whether drivers are installed correctly
It makes no sense to seriously consider options when a laptop does not have a Wi-Fi module or cannot operate in access point mode, since almost all modern laptop computers are equipped with the equipment necessary for distributing the Internet. Therefore, let’s immediately move on to the most common cause of problems with a hosted network – “crookedly” installed, missing or not entirely suitable software.
There are several ways to make sure that the network adapter is normally detected by Windows 7/10 and does not conflict with other devices. The easiest way is through the “Device Manager”. We go into it and open the “Network adapters” branch. Finding the wireless communication module we need is not difficult - its name must contain the words Wireless or Wi-Fi. Or it will simply be called “Network Adapter”.
The main thing is to make sure that there is no yellow exclamation mark next to the module, which usually indicates problems or the absence of necessary drivers. Go to adapter properties ( Right mouse button – Properties) and on the General tab, check the device status.
If it says “The device is working normally,” then in principle there should be no problems with launching the hosted network, but in reality everything turns out to be not quite so. It often happens that the Wi-Fi adapter drivers are installed correctly (you can check for availability and, if necessary, reinstall them on the “Driver” tab of the “Properties” window), and the device itself works flawlessly in the usual mode of receiving data, but the error “Could not start the hosted network" still appears. If this is your case, then move on to the next point.
Rollback to a previous driver version
When you update device drivers, Windows saves older versions of the software so you can roll back to them at any time if problems arise. This is exactly what we will do, because the driver version of the wireless adapter often determines whether it will support a hosted network or not (this is especially true for Windows 10). You can find out which driver is currently in use through the same Device Manager, but we will use the command line. Let's launch it and execute the command netsh wlan show drivers.
The above screenshot shows the result of the query. It can be seen that a fresh working driver is installed, but the “Hosted Network Support” line is set to “No”, i.e. An attempt to start the network will definitely cause the error “The hosted network could not be started.” Let's try to roll back to an older version of the driver and see the result.
In the “Device Manager”, right-click on the adapter and select “Update drivers...”.
A list of all drivers available on your computer will appear. We select the earliest one among them (in our case, 2015) and click “Next”.
A window will appear indicating that the driver has been installed successfully.
Let's check if hosted network support is now available. Run the command again on the command line netsh wlan show drivers and we see that now it is possible to create an access point.
In order to finally make sure of this, here we enter netsh wlan start hostednetwork. The message “Hosted Network Started” will indicate that everything was successful.
Now we can set the parameters of a virtual access point to which any devices can connect.
This is how we solved the problem with the inability to launch a hosted network. If all of the above steps did not help you, try uninstalling and reinstalling the adapter drivers, playing around with different driver versions, and restarting Windows. At worst, if all else fails, buy a separate USB module for your laptop and set up Internet distribution through it.
As you probably know, a Windows computer can easily be turned into a Wi-Fi hotspot that other devices can use to access the Internet (,).
However, Microsoft has not provided any normal means of removing such an access point in Windows 10 when it is no longer needed.
The organization of the operation of such an access point is implemented by creating a separate virtual Wi-Fi adapter, which is called:
- On Windows 7 - Microsoft Virtual WiFi Miniport Adapter
- On Windows 10/Windows 8.1 - Microsoft Wi-Fi Direct Virtual Adapter
As usual, the Microsoft virtual Wi-Fi adapter is removed
Typically, users remove a virtual Wi-Fi adapter as follows:
However, the problem is that when the Microsoft virtual Wi-Fi adapter is disabled in this way, after restarting the computer, this device again appears in the list of network cards
The fact is that with such a shutdown, the hidden virtual adapter still remains in the system (it is not deleted), and if you need to create a new access point, a new virtual adapter with an order index will appear in the system (Microsoft Wi-Fi Direct Virtual Adapter #2 , Microsoft Virtual WiFi Miniport Adapter #3, Microsoft Virtual WiFi Miniport Adapter #4, etc.), and it will still use the configuration of the old access point. Thus, several virtual adapters can be present in the system at the same time, and only one of them can be active.
How to properly reset Microsoft Virtual WiFi Miniport Adapter
The access point settings are stored in the registry, so to clear them you need to go to the registry branch HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\WlanSvc\Parameters\HostedNetworkSetting s remove DWORD parameter HostedNetworkSettings.
You can delete a parameter with the command:
reg delete hklm\system\currentcontrolset\services\wlansvc\parameters\hostednetworksettings /v hostednetworksettings
Now you need to restart your computer. After booting, check that the hosted network settings are reset
net start wlansvc
netsh wlan show hostednetwork
In field Settings section Hosted network settings the value should remain Not configured.
Removing a Microsoft virtual WiFi adapter on a computer with an Intel WLAN card
With Intel WLAN adapters, there is another problem. If the Intel My WiFi Technology module is installed on your computer (usually installed with the Intel PROSet/Wireless driver package), the system may have 2 Microsoft Virtual WiFi Miniport network adapters, which cannot be removed.
In this case, you need to find Intel PROSet/Wireless in the list of installed software in the control panel, change it and remove the Intel My WiFi Technology component.
After this, one virtual adapter should disappear. The second one can be removed using the method described above.
Over the course of their existence, wireless networks (Wireless Local Area Network-WLAN) have gone through many changes that affected security, range and speed, but the basic principles of operation have remained unchanged.
Wireless networks can operate in two modes: when two or more devices are connected directly to each other - point-to-point, or when they are connected through an access point (Access Point-AP). In the first case, they talk about a simple network (ad-hoc mode). The use of this operating mode is quite rare and is used mainly for data exchange when it is not possible to use an access point. The second mode, using an access point, is called infrastructure mode and in most cases is used in conjunction with a wireless router that is connected to the Internet. But using two operating modes simultaneously on one physical wireless adapter is not provided for by the Wi-Fi concept itself.
In search of new ways to use wireless networks, the concept of virtualization has been proposed, which removes certain restrictions on the use of such networks and thereby expands their capabilities. This approach to using wireless adapters has been implemented by several companies with corresponding technology names. At Intel, it's Intel My WiFi, and at Microsoft, it's Virtual WiFi.
Virtual Wi-Fi is a software layer that abstracts the wireless network card and creates multiple virtual adapters. Each virtual adapter can be separately configured to connect to different wireless networks, but they will all use the resources of only one physical wireless adapter.
What can this technology be useful for? For example, creating a personal network (Wireless Personal Area Network - WPAN) in which you can quickly connect a PDA, phone, printer, camera, laptop and other device with a wireless adapter for simple information exchange; use a laptop as a hotspot to provide Internet access to wireless devices using an Internet connection on the laptop, be it Ethernet, Wi-Fi, 3G or WiMax. Another example would be when the radio signal is not stable enough or does not cover the required distance between the access point and wireless devices. In this case, a computer or laptop with Virtual Wi-Fi technology can act as a repeater, thereby improving the radio coverage of the wireless network.
In Windows 7 and Windows 2008 R2, Virtual WiFi technology was included in the system and implemented at the kernel level, in addition, work was done on a simple implementation of a Software Access Point (SoftAP), while from wireless device manufacturers, Now you only need to implement SoftAP support in your drivers. In this regard, in the current implementation of Virtual WiFi in Windows 7 and Windows 2008 R2, it is possible to create only one virtual adapter that will only work in access point mode, while providing WPA2-PSK-AES encryption.
By the way, support for Virtual WiFi in drivers is a mandatory requirement for certification of wireless adapters for compatibility with Windows 7.
Virtual WiFi is designated as Wireless Hosted Network, in Russian designation as Hosted Network. In connection with the introduction of Virtual WiFi into new operating systems from Microsoft, new commands have been included in the network shell for managing a distributed network. Here are some of them:
- netsh wlan set hostednetwork allowed|disallowed - Allow or deny use of the network.
- netsh wlan set hostednetwork<идентификатор_SSID> <парольная_фраза>persistent|temporary - Configure network parameters, where SSID – network SSID; Key - User security key used by the network; keyUsage indicates the security key is permanent or temporary
- netsh wlan show settings – Shows the network property and its status.
- netsh wlan show hostednetwork settings=security – Displays the security settings of the hosted network. (Shows, including the password specified in key when setting up netsh wlan set hostednetwork)
- netsh wlan start hostednetwork - Start hosted network.
- netsh wlan stop hostednetwork - Stop network hosting.
What does setting up Virtual Wi-Fi look like in practice: we need a laptop or regular personal computer with wireless devices, Windows 7 and a driver that supports Virtual WiFi.
If the above described criteria are met, then call the command line with administrator rights and run the following command in it:
netsh wlan set hostednetwork mode=allow ssid="MS Virtual Wi-Fi" key="Pass for virtual wifi" keyUsage=persistent
In this example, “MS Virtual Wi-Fi” is the name of the wireless network, “Pass for virtual wifi” is the password to access this network. You can set these values at your discretion.
After executing this command, the system will find new equipment and a new network adapter will appear in the device manager, or rather a virtual one - Microsoft Virtual WiFi miniport adapter. But again, this virtual adapter will only appear if our wireless adapter driver supports Virtual WiFi.
By going to Control Panel - Network and Sharing Center - changing adapter settings, we will see a new connection, Wireless Network Connection 2, which will show the status - no connection. Therefore, the next step will be to launch the network. To do this, in a command prompt run with administrator rights, run the following command:
netsh wlan start hostednetwork.
After this, the network will start and the software access point (SoftAP) will work. You can verify this by going to Control Panel - Network and Sharing Center. Since we use a Wi-Fi Internet connection, we found that Windows 7 was connected to several wireless networks at the same time. Now other wireless devices can connect to our access point.
If we want to provide access to the Internet to other wireless devices that are connected to our software access point, that is, to organize a Hotspot, then we need to go to the Control Panel tab - Network and Sharing Center - changing adapter parameters and connection properties , which is connected to the Internet (in our case, this is a Wi-Fi connection, but it can be anything: ethernet, 3G, WiMax, etc.). On the access tab, check the Allow other network users to use the Internet connection of this computer, and in Connecting a home network, specify which network adapter to provide (share) the Internet to, in our case, it will be Wireless Network Connection 2, which refers to the virtual wireless adapter.
On the client side, you can see several wireless networks, and when connecting to our organized access point, the client will automatically receive an IP address from the internal DHCP server and will be separated from the external network by NAT (Network address translation).
The convenience of using Virtual Wi-Fi is obvious, but using the command line to configure and start the network (and you need to start the hosted network every time after rebooting the computer with administrator rights) is not entirely convenient. And, unfortunately, there is no built-in graphical shell for setting up Virtual WiFi. Therefore, it is not surprising that third-party utilities appear that perform the function of this very shell. Now there are several such utilities - Connectify and Virtual Router Manager. Their configuration is kept to a minimum - you need to specify the SSID and password for access. They are loaded along with the system and immediately enable the distributed network and are able to display all connections to our distributed network.
Connectify