About the addition and deletion of Microsoft Virtual WiFi Miniport Adapter

First, Windows 7 hidden function & mdash; — virtual WiFi

The emergence of WiFi technology has changed the habits of many computer users, but in addition to speed for many years In addition to the enhancement, coverage and security improvements, wireless technology has not developed much. However, since 2002, Microsoft Research has been researching virtualized WiFi adapters to receive almost all wireless signals through a single piece of hardware. Now, this virtual WiFi technology has been integrated into the basics of the Microsoft Windows 7 network.

Essentially, virtual WiFi works very much like a virtualized operating system, transparently sharing limited hardware resources for multiple operating systems. Virtual WiFi referred to as VWiFi is a software layer application for virtual multiple wireless adapters. This software allows each virtual adapter to connect to a wireless network and ensures that the adapter can support multiple wireless LANs at the same time.

According to the Long Zheng blog, this feature has been integrated in Windows 7. The reason this feature has been undiscovered for a long time is that the driver supports problem issues. This feature is not working properly now because there is no suitable driver. It is reported that as long as WiFi hardware manufacturers recompile their hardware Windows 7 drivers, they can provide virtual WiFi functionality under Windows 7. However, the prerequisite is that this WLAN driver needs to be certified by Microsoft Windows 7.

How Virtual WiFi Works

If all goes well, this feature will be automatically exposed soon. On Windows 7, the operating system will install a virtual device that directly hosts the wireless network function of the current WiFi network card. This virtual device can be displayed as “Wireless Network Connection 2” in the network connection menu, and the device name is “Microsoft Virtual WiFi”. Miniport Adapter (Microsoft Virtual Wireless Micro Adapter) & rdquo;.

Second, use Virtual WiFi in Windows7

If your Windows7 has a wireless network card driver that supports Virtual WiFi, you will see one in Control Panel\\Network and Internet\\Network Connection. Virtual network card, the device name is: Microsoft Virtual WiFi Miniprot adapter.

If your system does not have this feature and your network card is Intel, you can download the latest driver [32-bit, 64-bit]. If it is not, the third-party driver that comes with the system can also support ( For example, my USB-TPLink, TL-wn321G).

Currently supported devices are: Atheros AR5005GS (as in the TP-Link TL-WN651G); Atheros AR5007EG with 8.0.0.238 firmware; Broadcom 4310-series (in many Dell laptops); D-link AirPlus G DWL-G510 Wireless PCI Adapter (driver version 3.0.1.0); Intel 5100/5300 (with latest drivers from Intel's site, version 13.0.0.107, 64bit systems only); Ralink RT2870 (in many 802.11n USB dongles); Realtek RTL8187SE ( With the drivers that came with Windows 7); Realtek RTL8192u with 1370 (Beta) So how do you start using this virtual network card? I originally thought that this kind of network card is no different from the real network card, but after selecting the network card, I found that it has no connection/disconnection option, only to find that if you only have a single wireless network card, then this virtual network card can only be SoftAP first. , that is, the software virtual AP. This means that you can share the network connection on your computer and implement the function of the router. The operation is as follows:

1: If the device manager Microsoft Virtual WiFi Miniport Adapter in this computer is preceded by a yellow exclamation point, please follow the following command to make the annoying exclamation mark disappear;

2: If the latest wireless network card driver is installed, the Microsoft Virtual WiFi Miniport Adapter item does not appear in the device tube, please also press the following command to make it appear in front of you);

Open a command line window with administrator privileges (Start -> Attachment -> Command prompt, right click to open with administrator privileges) Enter: netsh wlan set hostednetwork mode=allow ssid=Windows7AP key=password (ssid and password based Personal preferences: Start the Adapter, enter: netsh wlan start hostednetwork

Finally select the virtual port (Microsoft Virtual Wifi miniport adapter) right-click property in Control Panel\\Network and Internet\\Network Connections, select the shared item. Select an existing network connection to share with it. As shown.

If you search for available networks on a wireless network card in another machine, you will find an AP that you created earlier, as shown below.

This is to achieve network sharing. Of course, if you find these command-line operations difficult, there is a software that can help you: Connectify. The software should be a function that encapsulates the above command line. It is now a Beta version. One question: I used to see Virtual WiFI in the Windows 7 adds native Virtual WiFi technology from Microsoft Research. It can be used to connect to multiple networks. I don't know what's going on. MSDN said that the logical Adapter can be three kinds of ready-made: STA, SoftAP, VSTA. And STA is the virtual network card that I described as real, SoftAP is the AP implemented in the past, and VSTA is used for third-party company driver development. So these are for further review.

Third, how to turn off the Virtual WiFi function?

Uninstall this device in Device Manager, and you will refresh it again. It will be done once and for all:

Open the command line window with administrator privileges (Start -> Attachments - > Command prompt, right click to open with administrator privileges) Enter “netsh wlan set hostednetwork mode=disallow” to turn off the virtual wifi function.