Share Your WiFi in Windows 11 & 10: Hotspot + QR, No Apps

To share your WiFi connection in Windows 11 or 10: open Settings → Network & internet → Mobile hotspot and switch it on — your PC becomes a hotspot other phones, tablets, and laptops can join, and on Windows 11 24H2 and newer it even shows a QR code guests can scan instead of typing a password. That is the whole modern answer — and it matters, because the other answer, the one most older guides still teach, is dead: the netsh wlan hosted-network commands no longer work on modern laptops, and no driver update will bring them back. If you have been staring at "hosted network supported: No" thinking your WiFi card is broken — it is not. Microsoft removed the feature. This post covers the two-click way, the QR trick, the settings that decide whether your phone can even see the hotspot, and the fix ladder for when it refuses to start.

Jake lost an evening to this in a hotel with WiFi that allowed exactly one device per room. Laptop connected fine; his phone was locked out. An old tutorial promised the fix: three netsh wlan commands to turn the laptop into a hotspot. The first check — netsh wlan show drivers — came back with "Hosted network supported: No," and Jake did what anyone would do: assumed the driver was faulty. He reinstalled it. Rolled it back. Downloaded a different version from the manufacturer’s site. Ninety minutes in, he finally learned the truth buried in a forum reply: that "No" is not a defect, it is the design — modern WiFi drivers dropped the hosted-network feature entirely, and Microsoft replaced it with a Settings toggle years ago. Two clicks later — Settings, Mobile hotspot, ON — his phone was online through the laptop. The commands he had been fighting were a monument, not a method.

Ethan: "Your laptop is a power strip for the internet: one wall socket in the room, but everyone’s devices plug into you. And those old netsh commands? That’s the payphone outside the hotel — the instruction card is still bolted to the wall, looking official, but the line was cut years ago. You can follow the card perfectly and nothing will ever ring."

"Sharing WiFi" means three different things — pick yours

People land on this page with three different problems, and Windows has a separate answer for each. Sharing your internet connection — making your PC a hotspot other devices join — is the Mobile hotspot toggle, and it is most of this post. Sharing a WiFi password so a guest can join the same network you are on — that is the QR code on the network’s settings page, no hotspot needed. And recovering a WiFi password you once knew — that is a different page of Settings entirely, and we keep a full guide to reading every WiFi password Windows has saved. If you came for the third one, that link is your answer; the first two are below.

Turn on Mobile hotspot (Windows 11 and 10, two clicks)

1. Open Settings (Windows + I) → Network & internet → Mobile hotspot. (Windows 10 keeps it in the same place, on the left pane.)
2. Under Share my internet connection from, pick the source — your WiFi, Ethernet, or cellular connection. Windows usually picks the right one by itself.
3. Click Edit to set the hotspot’s name and password to something you can say out loud without spelling exercises — then switch Mobile hotspot ON.
4. On the other device, join that network name with that password — exactly like joining any WiFi.

The quick route for the second time onward: the hotspot lives in Quick Settings too — click the network icon by the clock and the Mobile hotspot tile toggles it without opening Settings at all. Up to eight devices can connect at once, which covers a family hotel room with room to spare.

The QR code way: nobody types anything (Windows 11 24H2+)

On Windows 11 24H2 and newer, the Mobile hotspot page shows a QR code next to your hotspot’s details the moment it is on. A guest points their phone’s camera at your screen, taps the prompt, and they are connected — no password read aloud, no typo on the fourth attempt. The same trick works for a network you are already on, without any hotspot:

1. Settings → Network & internet → Wi-Fi → click your connected network’s properties.
2. Find Wi-Fi network password and click Show — Windows displays the password and a QR code that encodes the network name, security type, and key in one square.
3. Let the guest scan it. Their phone joins your actual WiFi directly — your PC is not in the middle, so you can even close the laptop afterward.

That difference is worth a sentence: the QR-for-your-network route hands a guest the keys to the same router you use, while the hotspot route funnels their traffic through your PC. Guests you trust at home get the first; the hotel-room and locked-down-office cases need the second.

WiFi in, WiFi out: yes, one adapter can do both

The question everyone asks before trying: "my laptop only has one WiFi card — can it receive the hotel WiFi and broadcast a hotspot at the same time?" Yes. Modern WiFi hardware timeshares the radio between the two jobs, so the same card that is connected to the hotel network can serve your phone and tablet a private network of its own. This is precisely the trick for sign-in-per-device WiFi: hotels, campuses, and airport lounges that meter by device see one connected machine — your laptop — while everything else rides through it. (Those networks count devices in ways worth understanding — our MAC address guide explains what they actually see.) Two honest notes: sharing one radio costs speed — expect the passengers to get noticeably less than the laptop gets, since every packet is received and re-sent by the same card — and if the source network needs a browser sign-in first, complete it on the laptop before switching the hotspot on; here is the fix when that sign-in page refuses to appear.

The dead commands: why "hosted network supported: No" is forever

A whole generation of tutorials — the 2016 version of this very page among them — taught hotspots with three commands: netsh wlan set hostednetwork, start hostednetwork, and friends. Those commands drove a feature called the hosted network, and it belonged to the old WiFi driver architecture. Modern WiFi drivers are built on a newer model (WDI) that simply does not include it — which is why netsh wlan show drivers reports "Hosted network supported: No" on virtually every laptop sold in the last several years. That "No" is not a missing driver, not a disabled service, not a BIOS setting — there is nothing to fix, and the YouTube videos promising to flip it to Yes are selling weather control. Microsoft’s replacement is exactly the Mobile hotspot toggle this post opened with: same result, two clicks, no commands. If you are on a machine old enough that the commands still work, they still work — but the moment that laptop retires, so does the trick, and the Settings route is the one that survives.

The three settings that decide whether it actually works

The band row deserves the emphasis, because it produces the most confusing symptom in this whole topic: the hotspot is on, the laptop says so, and the phone swears no such network exists. A hotspot broadcasting on 5 GHz is invisible to devices whose WiFi only speaks 2.4 GHz — older phones, e-readers, smart plugs, a lot of budget tablets. Nothing is broken; they are deaf to that frequency. Set the band to 2.4 GHz and the network pops into their list on the next scan.

When it refuses: the fix ladder

One more stubborn case earns its own paragraph: everything on, everything visible, connected — and the passenger device still shows "no internet." Nine times out of ten the laptop is sitting behind a captive portal it has not finished with, or a VPN client is routing so strictly that shared traffic has no exit. Pause the VPN, load one page on the laptop to confirm it is genuinely online, and the hotspot usually comes alive without touching anything else.

Honest aside: what a laptop hotspot is and is not good for

A Windows hotspot is a bridge, not a router replacement. It is superb for a hotel evening, a power cut at the office, a phone with no data left, or getting a smart device through setup. It is the wrong tool for running a household — the laptop must stay on and awake, the shared speed shrinks with every passenger, and eight devices is the hard ceiling. Security-wise the defaults are sane: the hotspot uses WPA2 protection and a password Windows generates for you — keep a password on it always, and change the auto-generated one to something you can dictate across a room. And if the connection you are sharing is a phone plan or any capped line, remember the passengers count against the same allowance — Windows can flag connections as metered to keep background downloads polite, and our metered-connection guide covers exactly how that flag behaves.

The 60-second hotel-room routine

1. Connect the laptop to the venue WiFi and finish the browser sign-in page until a normal website loads.
2. Settings → Network & internet → Mobile hotspot → Edit: friendly name, sayable password, band 2.4 GHz if any older device is joining.
3. Switch Power saving off for the evening, then the hotspot ON.
4. Join from the phones — or just show them the QR code on the hotspot page.
5. When you are done, toggle it off from Quick Settings — no reason to broadcast all night.

FAQ — sharing WiFi in Windows, answered straight

How do I share my WiFi connection in Windows 11?

Settings → Network & internet → Mobile hotspot → ON. Other devices join the hotspot name shown there, with the password from the same page — or by scanning its QR code.

Is it the same on Windows 10?

Yes — same Settings path, same toggle. The QR codes are the newer addition; on Windows 10 you share the name and password the spoken way.

Can my laptop share the same WiFi it is connected to?

Yes. One modern WiFi card can receive a network and broadcast a hotspot at the same time — that is the standard trick for one-device-per-room hotel WiFi.

How many devices can connect to a Windows hotspot?

Up to eight at once. The practical limit arrives earlier: every passenger shares the laptop’s own connection speed.

How do I share a WiFi password without reading it out?

On Windows 11 24H2+: the network’s properties page (Settings → Wi-Fi) shows the password with a QR code; the Mobile hotspot page shows one for the hotspot. Guests scan with their camera.

Why does netsh say "hosted network supported: No"?

Because modern WiFi drivers removed that legacy feature — it is not a fault and cannot be switched to Yes. Use Settings → Mobile hotspot instead.

What does "We can’t set up mobile hotspot" mean?

The PC has no working internet connection to share. Connect it first — including finishing any hotel or campus sign-in page — then turn the hotspot on.

My phone cannot see the hotspot — why?

The hotspot is likely broadcasting on 5 GHz and the phone only hears 2.4 GHz. Hotspot Properties → Edit → Band → 2.4 GHz fixes it.

Why does my hotspot keep turning itself off?

Power saving switches it off when no devices are connected. Turn that setting off while you want the hotspot waiting.

Can I share an Ethernet or cellular connection as WiFi?

Yes — the "Share my internet connection from" dropdown accepts WiFi, Ethernet, or cellular as the source. Wired-in-hotspot-out is actually the best-performing setup.

Devices connect but have no internet — what now?

Confirm the laptop itself can load pages (captive portals are the usual thief), re-check the source dropdown, and pause any VPN — strict VPN routing often strands hotspot traffic.

Is a Windows hotspot secure?

It is password-protected with WPA2 by default. Keep the password on, make it strong but sayable, and turn the hotspot off when you are done broadcasting.

Does the hotspot slow down my internet?

Somewhat, yes — when one WiFi card both receives and rebroadcasts, every passenger’s packet crosses the radio twice. Ethernet as the source avoids that halving entirely.

Does hotspot traffic count against my data plan?

Entirely — passengers spend the same allowance the laptop does. Mark capped connections as metered so background downloads stay polite.

Do guests need an app to use the QR code?

No — any modern phone camera reads WiFi QR codes natively and offers to join with one tap.

Do the old netsh hosted-network guides still work anywhere?

Only on old machines whose drivers predate the change. On anything recent the commands fail permanently — the Settings toggle is the version of this trick that survives.

Where to go next

Revision note. This page has been teaching Windows to share its connection since December 2016 — when the answer involved command-prompt incantations and a feature called the hosted network. That feature is gone from modern machines, so the page was rewritten top to bottom in August 2026: the two-click Mobile hotspot, the QR codes that arrived with Windows 11 24H2, the band setting that makes hotspots invisible to older phones, and an honest burial for the netsh commands — including the ones our own 2016 version taught. If your hotspot still refuses after the fix ladder above, tell us through the contact page; the stubborn cases write the next update. And if you ever reinstalled a WiFi driver three times chasing that "hosted network supported: No" — you were never the problem. The instructions on the payphone just outlived the phone line.