Turn a Windows laptop into a Wi-Fi hotspot

Martyn Casserly explains how you can connect to the internet via your Windows PC’s Wi-Fi network

Being connected to the internet is pretty much a requirement for all our mobile devices these days. But whether you’re at home or away, it’s not always possible to get the best signal for every bit of your kit. One easy solution is to turn your laptop into a Wi-Fi hotspot. In big houses and offices, where the Wi-Fi may have dead zones, a hotspot can give access to devices that wouldn’t normally be able to connect.

Your hotspot can also come in handy when you’re out and about. If you’ve paid to connect to a public Wi-Fi, you can use your laptop to connect other devices or a friend’s computers and make the most of it. A new feature in the Windows 10 Anniversary update called Mobile Hotspot makes it easy to set up a network that uses your laptop’s Wi-Fi connection, allowing up to eight devices access to the web. It works with either Wi-Fi or an ethernet connection.

Turn your laptop or PC into a Wi-Fi Hotspot

To create a hotspot on your Windows 10 PC make sure you’ve already installed the Anniversary update.

If Windows is set to automatically install updates, which we’d recommend, then the chances are that this has already happened. The way to check which version of Windows you’re currently running is to open up the Start Menu, select Settings > System, then scroll down the left-hand column until you find About. Click on this and in the main pane look halfway down for the Version number. Window 10 Anniversary is 1607, so if you have that (or higher) then you’re good to go.

If you’re not on the Anniversary update you can manually update your version of Windows by going back to the Settings menu and selecting Update & Security. Here you’ll see the option Check for updates. Click that and Windows will look for the most recent release.

Set up a Wi-Fi hotspot in Windows 10

Creating a Wi-Fi hotspot is simple thanks to the new Mobile Hotspot feature. First of all go to the Start Menu and select Settings > Network & Internet > Mobile hotspot.

In the main pane there is a drop-down menu entitled ‘Share my Internet connection’ from which will most likely display Wi-Fi if you’re using a laptop, or possibly Wired for those of you who have the PC connected directly to the router via an ethernet cable. If you’re using a desktop and don’t have the Mobile Hotspot option showing, this most likely means that your machine doesn’t have a Wi-Fi adaptor, so the Mobile hotspot feature is disabled.

Select the connection you want to use for your hotspot, then click the Edit button to add a new network name and password. This won’t alter the logon details the PC uses, instead it creates a new virtual connection from your computer that other devices will need to log onto the hotspot.

With that done, the final step is to turn on the Share my Internet connection with other devices that you’ll find at the top of the Mobile hotspot settings.

Now you can use your phone, tablet, or any other internet enabled device to connect to the network on your PC. Just open the Wi-Fi settings on your device, look for the name of the network you created, enter the password, and you should find yourself online.

We have seen people experience problems with the Mobile hotspot setting, where their computers report they can’t turn on Wi-Fi when users toggle the Share my internet connection with other devices option. The solutions for this error seem to vary across different systems, with some people finding turning off Bluetooth clears the problem. If you do encounter this issue, then we suggest searching online for both the error and your computer model to find the answer as quickly as possible.