Can't start hostednetwork

This happen after you disable via Control Panel -> network adapters -> right click button on the virtual connection -> disable

To fix that go to Device Manager (Windows-key + x + m on windows 8, Windows-key + x then m on windows 10), then open the network adapters tree , right click button on Microsoft Hosted Network Virtual Adapter and click on enable.

Try now with the command netsh wlan start hostednetwork with admin privileges. It should work.

Note: If you don't see the network adapter with name 'Microsoft Hosted Network Virtual Adapter' try on menu -> view -> show hidden devices in the Device Manager window.

Let alone enabling the network adapter under Device Manager may not help. The following helped me resolved the issue.

I tried Disabling and Enabling the Wifi Adapter (i.e. the actual Wifi device adapter not the virtual adapters) in Control Panel -> Network and Internet -> Network Connections altogether worked for me. The same can be done from the Device Manager too. This surely resets the adapter settings and for the Wifi Adapter and the Virtual Miniport adapters.

However, please make sure that the mode is set to allow as in the below example before you run the start command.

netsh wlan set hostednetwork mode=allow ssid=ssidOfUrChoice key=keyOfUrChoice

and after that run the command netsh wlan start hostednetwork.

Also once the usage is over with the Miniport adapter connection, it is a good practice to stop it using the following command.

netsh wlan stop hostednetwork

Hope it helps.

I encountered this problem on my laptop. I found the solution for this problem.

1. Test this command in the command prompt "netsh wlan show driver".
2. See Hosted network supported.
3. If it is no,

Then do this

1. Go to device manager.
2. Click on view and press on "show hidden devices".
3. Go down to the list of devices and expand the node "Network Devices" .
4. Find an adapter with the name "Microsoft Hosted Network Virtual Adapter" and then right click on it.
5. Select Enable
6. This will enable the AdHoc created connection, it should appear in the network connections in Network and Sharing Center, if the AdHoc network connection is not appear then open elevated command prompt and apply this command "netsh wlan stop hostednetwork" without quotations.
7. After this, the connection should appear. Then try starting your connection. It should work fine.