How to Use Windows PC as Mobile Hotspot?

Do you know that your PC can turn into a Mobile Hotspot? Previously, you must be trying to build up a hotspot connection by using a third-party application. But, now you can actually do this by using Windows 10 inbuilt ‘Mobile Hotspot’ feature. In this guide, we will show you how to use this feature.

Windows PC as Mobile Hotspot

With the help of Windows PC, you can share your ‘Internet connection‘ data with other devices using Wi-Fi. You can use Wi-Fi or Bluetooth to share your internet connection. If you have a mobile data connection on your device then it will use the data from your SIM connection.

1. Check Support for Hosted Networks

Windows 10 has a hosted network feature that uses a network shell (Netsh) utility. This feature is essential for supporting mobile hotspot. Hence, before using the mobile hotspot, you need to make sure that your Wi-Fi adapter supports hosted network or not. Follow the below instructions to check this:

• Open ‘Command Prompt’ in administrator mode. You can do this by searching for ‘CMD’ in Windows search box. You will see ‘Command Prompt’ as the first option. Just right click on it and choose ‘Run as administrator’.

Note: Instead of command prompt, you can also check this from Windows PowerShell in admin mode. Press ‘Win + X’ keys and then select ‘Windows PowerShell (Admin)’ option.

• When you are in command prompt, type in netsh wlan show drivers and press enter key from the keyboard.

• Press yes, if you are prompted with ‘User Account Control’ dialog box. You should allow the app to make changes to your device.
• Check the line ‘Hosted network supported’. If it’s ‘Yes’ then your PC definitely supports hosted networks.

If no, you will see the hosted network support as ‘No’ as shown in the below screenshot.

2. Creating Mobile Hotspot in Windows 10

When you know that your PC supports this feature, then simply turn this feature on to use it. Follow the below instructions to enable mobile hotspot:

• Press ‘Win + I’ keys to open Windows Settings app. You can also open Windows Settings by searching for ‘Settings’ in Windows search box and press enter to open it.
• Navigate to ‘Network & Internet’ option in Windows Settings.

• Enable ‘Mobile Hotspot’.

• If your device supports mobile hotspot then click on the dropdown under ‘Share my Internet connection from’ option. Generally you will only see Wi-Fi on most of the Windows 10 devices. If your device supports mobile connection then choose the connection from Wi-Fi, cellular data or any other available option.

• You can share the internet connection through either Wi-Fi or Bluetooth. Choose ‘Wi-Fi’ or ‘Bluetooth’ option under ‘Share my Internet connection over’ option. Remember to switch on Bluetooth if you want to choose that as an option.

• Click on the ‘Edit’ button to see Windows 10 shows some default network name and password for sharing.
• You can also change the network name and password as per your wish.
• Click on ‘Save’ button to save the changes.

Remember, you should share this network name and password with other devices to connect to the hotspot network.

3. Turn On Mobile Hotspot in Windows 10

Now that you have created a hotspot network. You need to turn on this network before sharing with other devices. Follow the below instructions to turn on mobile hotspot network.

• Click the Wi-Fi icon on the taskbar.
• Then, click on ‘Mobile Hotspot’ option to turn it on. If you want to turn it off, simply click on it again to turn it off.

4. Connect Windows 10 Mobile Hotspot Network from Other Device

Let’s say there is a mobile phone from which you want to connect your PC mobile hotspot. To do this:

• Turn the ‘Mobile Hotspot’ ‘On’ in Windows 10 as explained above.
• Then, turn on the Wi-Fi on your phone.
• Search the nearby network connections and connect to the mobile hotspot network name you have created in Windows 10 PC.
• Enter the network password of the mobile hotspot connection to connect to the internet through your PC.

5. Controlling Hosted Network Connection

If you shared the mobile hotspot network name and password with any other person then you may be interested in learning how to control the service. This is required to stop the person from using the connection through your PC.

There are may options to enable or disable the mobile hotspot netork in Windows 10.

5.1. Switch Off Hotspot

You can disable hotspot by clicking on the Wi-Fi icon on the taskbar. This will stop the connection temporarily on the connected device.

The other option is to change the network name or password of your shared mobile hotspot connection.

5.2. Start/Stop a Hosted Network from Command Prompt

If your PC has a connection but you are unable to start/stop it, try disabling it using CMD. To do this:

• Open the ‘CMD’ and run it as administrator as explained above.
• Type netsh wlan start hostednetwork to start the service.

• Type netsh wlan stop hostednetwork to simply stop the service.

5.3. Disabling Hosted Network Service Permanently

Windows 10 does not provide permanently disabling the mobile hotspot service directly. But, it’s possible by editing the registry of Windows 10:

• Type ‘Regedit’ in ‘Start’ and hit ‘Enter’ key to open ‘Registry Editor‘.
• Navigate to the path ‘HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\system\currentcontrolset\services\wlansvc\parameters\ HostedNetworkSettings ‘.
• Right-click on ‘HostedNetworkSettings’ and choose ‘Delete’ it.

• Restart your PC to disable the hosted network support. This essentially means you device will stop supporting mobile hotspot connections. When your device does not support, you will see a message like below showing ‘We can’t set up mobile hotspot’ when trying to connect to mobile hotspot.