How to Update Your Wireless (Wi-Fi) Driver

An out-of-date Wi-Fi driver is behind many hotspot problems. Update yours if Connectify Hotspot shows "Your Wi-Fi adapter does not support AP mode. Please try updating the drivers for your Wi-Fi adapter" when you click Start hotspot, if it says Wi-Fi Direct or Microsoft Hosted Network could not be started, or if your devices keep dropping off your hotspot.

Here's how you can update your wireless (Wi-Fi) driver on your PC running Windows 10 or 11:

  1. Determine the wireless driver that you're running on your PC, along with the date and version. Open the command prompt (press Windows+R, type "cmd" and press Enter) and enter the following command:
netsh wlan show drivers

You should get a screen like the one below:

Don't worry if it shows Hosted network supported : No. Connectify Hotspot 27 uses Wi-Fi Direct by default, and many current adapters support only that.

  1. If the driver is more than one year old, we suggest you update it. Copy the driver name from the command prompt screen and search the web for it.
  2. Download the latest available driver for your wireless (Wi-Fi) adapter from the manufacturer's website. For a laptop, start with your laptop maker's support site, which has drivers made for your model. Otherwise, go to the website of your Wi-Fi adapter's maker (in the example above, Intel). Connectify Hotspot 27 runs only on 64-bit Windows, so choose the 64-bit (x64) driver for your version of Windows. If you're unsure which version you're running, open Settings > System > About and look at Windows specifications. (We suggest downloading the file to your Desktop).
  3. Install the driver by running the installer. If the driver doesn't have an installer:
    1. Open the Device Manager: right-click the Start button and choose Device Manager, or press the Windows key, type "Device Manager" and open it.
    2. Expand Network adapters, right-click your wireless adapter and choose Update driver.
    3. Choose Browse my computer for drivers and locate the drivers you downloaded. Windows will then install the drivers.
  4. Reboot your PC after installing the updated drivers.

Notes

Windows Update sometimes offers newer drivers too. On Windows 11, look in Settings > Windows Update > Advanced options > Optional updates.

Here are the driver update websites for some frequently used wireless (Wi-Fi) cards:

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