Lenovo X395 Win10 : cant get MS Hosted Network Virtual Adapter installed

Are you using the Intel or Realtek WLAN driver on your X395?

Realtek
https://download.lenovo.com/pccbbs/mobiles/r13rw07w.exe

Intel
https://download.lenovo.com/pccbbs/mobiles/r13iw06w.exe

my X395's  Wifi driver is
Intel(R) Wireless-AC 9260 160MHz
Driver ver 21.60.0.5

Downloaded Intel's driver from link above,
installed but still don't see "Hosted Virtual
Wifi adapter" as shown in attached.
Installed_Inteldrvr.jpg

Is this the original wifi device that came with your x395 or is it an add-on?

The issue is Microsoft have told Intel to no longer support the feature

If you're quick you can download the older version of the driver here (until end of this month):
https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/29258/Windows-10-Wi-Fi-Drivers-for-Intel-Wireless-Adapters
That should still support Hosted Network Support - if it does keep a copy safely somewhere as Windows will try to replace it with the current (Unsupported) version.

Otherwise you may be stuck with using Windows Mobile Hotspot instead
https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/articles/000023257/network-and-i-o/wireless-networking.html

> Is this the original wifi device that came with your x395 or is it an add-on?
It's the original that comes built-in with the X395.

Attached is how my X240's  MS virtual hosted wifi adapter looks like where
it's working on the same Win 10 Professional.

downloaded the 64bit version in above link & installed: still no joy
MSHostedViradapt.jpg

> Otherwise you may be stuck with using Windows Mobile Hotspot instead
> https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/articles/000023257/network-and-i-o/wireless-networking.html


How do we go about setting up Mobile Hotspot or Wifi Direct?

I can't use 3rd parties like Connectify, MyHotspot etc:  
disallowed on company laptop.  Had to be something native
or from MS

Just search for mobile hotspot in Windows search and you can locate the bundled tool.

Bear with my lack of IT-savviness.

Googled with the keywords 'mobile hotspot in Windows 10' & went into ten links but none of them has the download for MS native hotspot:

https://www.google.com/search?safe=strict&sxsrf=ALeKk0391WhuFUH5f4OP683-Q7AC1wHtAA%3A1585143515093&source=hp&ei=2157XqK-A7fez7sPt8qpoAo&q=mobile+hotspot+in+Windows+10+download&oq=mobile+hotspot+in+Windows+10+download&gs_l=psy-ab.3..0j0i22i30l2.1101.8895..9165...1.0..0.148.922.13j1......0....1..gws-wiz.......35i39j0i131i273j0i273j0i67j0i131j0i131i67.A-rHc5tAowo&ved=0ahUKEwjil4jh37XoAhU373MBHTdlCqQQ4dUDCAU&uact=5

Not to do a Google search.

Search within Windows 10 OS.

OR

Refer to the link below.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4027762/windows-use-your-pc-as-a-mobile-hotspot

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4027762/windows-use-your-pc-as-a-mobile-hotspot

Separately check if there's an older driver still on your system already
Device Manager
Locate the WLAN card
Right-click
Update Driver
Search my PC
See what compatible drivers are installed.
Again, the issue is you have a very new wireless chipset so finding a driver which includes the now deprecated Access Point option isn't likely to be successful simply because all the drivers written already exclude it.

EDIT:
This is the earliest release version of the driver and supports both your chipset and MS Hosted Network Virtual Adapter
Intel PROSet/Wireless WiFi Software Version 20.60.0.7 WHQL

Trying now to find a safe download as Intel no longer host this.

Closest so far is here:
https://www.station-drivers.com/download/www/intel/wifi/intel_wifi_20.60.0.7(www.station-drivers.com).exe
Can't recommend it but am running through VirusTotal and it seems virus free but it's likely to include unwanted software too.

I've unpacked it using 7zip into a sandbox and the driver files seem untouched WHQL versions so unless we can find a version from a more trustworthy site I'd suggest unpacking but not running the installer into a known location then pointing: 'Update my driver>Find on my PC>Browse' and pointing Device Manager at that known location to see if the driver can be installed directly from there rather than running the software installer.

Because it's such an early version for your WiFi chipset you may lose some functionality and or speed over WiFi but if it adds the option for Hosted Network Virtual Adapter you might feel the trade off is worth it.

Here's the VirusTotal result for the download
https://www.virustotal.com/gui/file/9b0e1f07d5c9baaa828b353d7ae83d621d03a77a4ac2c3a7c63dbbf8d0f1e0fb/detection

Following Jackie's lead, the "Mobile Hotspot" is greyed out:
cant click on it nor the 2 blue links on the right as attached

Trying out MASQ's driver
Mobilehotspot_greyedout.jpg

How is your notebook connected to the Internet?

Behind a hardware firewall?

Have tried both:
connect laptop to home broadband's Wifi directly (no firewall)
as well as to corporate LAN (with hardware firewall): same observation.

Also installed MASQ's driver: took a while & PC self reboot with 542
Lenovo's drivers/patches updated: no joy ie don't see the "Hosted
Virtual adapter" under Device Mgr.

Also went to an MS app site to search for "Nowifi" : this app after
installed is greyed out.

I have local admin rights (my AD Id is a member of local
Administrators)

It is the expected outcome.

You need to connect your notebook to the Internet via LAN or 4G USB dongle and create a mobile hotspot.

You cannot share a wifi via mobile hotspot.

The access to the Internet via wifi and creation of mobile hotspot essentially use the same wireless nic which controls wifi and Bluetooth network. There is no workaround.

For the corporate LAN, the hardware firewall should have stopped the creation of mobile hotspot and you need to ask your network admin guy for help.

Will test it out using a LAN cable on Monday as didn't get a chance
to connect it to wired LAN.

Connected to wired LAN (broadband without firewall)
& it's still greyed out & can't click on anything in it.

When I searched in Windows for "mobile hotspots" &
click on "Open", got a blue color settings screen  as
shown in attached
MobileHotspot_Settings.jpg

on the comments from MASQ,  I found that the very same driver of the
same size (to the byte) & date  is present on both my X395 as well as
the working X240, so isn't there any way I can just get Device Manager
to read it & install it?


 Directory of C:\Windows\System32\drivers
19/03/2019  12:43 pm            50,176 vwifimp.sys

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7S9sTjvPxk

Link above has a video on how to add a driver using Device Manager
but that's provided I have the relevant .inf file.  Also above link is
for 'update driver'  but what I need is to create something new,
not updating an existing driver

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/how-to-install-microsoft-hosted-network-virtual/638f91b9-e546-466d-b491-6db857cf9f3f

Followed above URL but don't see anything for MS hosted virtual adapter driver under "Model" column
DevMgraddLegacydrvr.docx

Increasingly I'm thinking you're out of luck with this one. You can try copying the whole x240 driver package across but the hardware is very different so some features may not be installed and I think this is what you are seeing. WLAN doesn't work LAN won't either so there's no really advantage in trying to get one working if the other doesn't.

Unpack the x260 driver on the x395 and then point Device Manager at it as described above.

> Unpack the x260 driver on the x395 and then point Device Manager at it as described above.
On my working tethered X240, I can't locate which .inf file to use so I'll need this as simply
unpacking it over is not enough:  Device Mgr requires a .inf that goes with the .sys drivers