How to Create Mobile Hotspot in Windows 11

You can use your Windows laptop as a hotspot to share the internet with other devices. Here is how to create a hotspot in Windows 11.

It is not often, but there will be situations where you need to share your desktop’s or laptop’s internet connection with other devices. For example, maybe your Wi-Fi router is fried, and you connected the ethernet cable directly to the laptop. In that case, creating a Wi-Fi hotspot in Windows 11 will allow your computer to share the internet with other devices over Wi-Fi or Bluetooth. That way, you can use the internet on all devices—no need to limit yourself to the laptop or desktop.

Unlike the older versions, Windows 11 makes it easy to create a hotspot. In fact, the hotspot in Windows is preconfigured with optimal settings to make it easy to turn it on and start sharing your internet connection with other devices.

What is a hotspot?

A hotspot makes it easy to share your internet connection with other devices wirelessly if you don’t know. i.e., over Wi-Fi or Bluetooth. You can think of creating a hotspot as turning your Windows 11 laptop into a virtual wireless router. Devices in the hotspot range will see the hotspot like any other wireless network and connect to it.

On a mobile phone, you can create and share a hotspot with just a single tap. You can do that same thing in Windows 11. All you have to do is create a hotspot in Windows and then turn it on. While setting up the hotspot, you can also protect it with a password to restrict who can connect and use the hotspot. Once turned on, other devices can connect to the hotspot and use the internet via your Windows 11 computer.

So, without further ado, let me show you how to create a hotspot in Windows 11, protect Windows 11 hotspot with a password, and how to turn on the hotspot in Windows 11.

Jump to:

• Create hotspot
• Turn on hotspot
• Turn off hotspot
• Change hotspot password
• Cannot find hotspot button in Quick Settings

Create a hotspot in Windows 11

You can create a mobile hotspot connection in Windows 11 with the Settings app. You need to find the “Mobile Hotspot” option, select appropriate settings, and turn it on. Here is how to do it in simple steps.

1. Right-click on the Start menu.
2. Select the “Settings” option.
3. Choose the “Network & Internet” option on the sidebar.
4. Click on the “Mobile hotspot” option on the main panel.
5. Select “Wi-Fi” or “Ethernet” from the “Share my internet connection from” dropdown menu.
6. Turn on the “Mobile Hotspot” option.
7. Select “Wi-Fi” from the “Share over” dropdown menu.
8. (Optional) Turn off the “Power Saving” option.
9. The default hotspot password will appear under the “Properties” section.
10. You can now connect other devices to Windows 11 hotspot.

Let us see the same steps in a good bit of detail:

The first step is to open the Settings app. There are multiple ways to do it. The easiest way to do this is to use the “Start + I” key binding. You can right-click on the Start menu and select “Settings” from the list of options if you want to. After opening the Settings app, select “Network & Internet” on the sidebar. As the name suggests, this is the page where you can create and modify most of the network and internet settings in Windows 11.

Once you are on the Network & Internet page, click on the “Mobile Hotspot” option. This page hosts all the hotspot-related settings. That means you can create, turn on, and edit the Windows hotspot.

Next, you need to select from which connection you want to share the internet. You can think of it as a source connection. For example, if your laptop is connected to an ethernet cable for the internet, you must choose the Ethernet option. When connected to a wireless router, you must select “Wi-Fi.” So, choose either “Ethernet” or “Wi-Fi” from the “Share my internet connection from” dropdown menu.

After that, choose “Wi-Fi” from the “Share over” dropdown menu. You can also share the internet over a hotspot via Bluetooth, but the connection will be very slow, and the client device needs to support the Internet over Bluetooth. So, select “Wi-Fi,” and it will work in 99% of cases.

To create a hotspot, turn on the “Mobile Hotspot” option. Doing so will create and turn on the hotspot. By default, Windows 11 uses the computer name as the SSID Name and a random password. You can see the SSID Name and password under the “Properties” section. These details are required to connect to the hotspot from other devices.

(Optional step) By default, the power saving option is turned on. As you can tell from the name itself, turning on the power saving option will automatically turn off the hotspot after some time when no devices are connected to it.

That is it. From now, you can connect to the hotspot from other devices.

Turn on the hotspot in Windows 11

There are two ways to turn on the hotspot in Windows 11. i.e., from Settings or the Quick Settings panel. I will show both. Follow the one you like.

From Settings

1. Open the Settings app.
2. Go to the “Network & Internet > Mobile Hotspot” page.
3. Turn on the “Mobile Hotspot” option.
4. With that, the Windows 11 hotspot is turned on.
5. You can use the password shown under the “Properties” section to connect from another device.

From the Quick Settings panel

1. Click on the “Network” icon on the taskbar.
2. Click on the “Mobile Hotspot” button.
3. It will turn on the Windows 11 hotspot.
4. To see the hotspot password, right-click on the “Mobile Hotspot” button and select “Go to settings.”
5. You will see the hotspot password under the “Properties” section.

Important note: If you cannot see or find the Mobile Hotspot button in the Quick Settings panel, see the last section. It will show how you can add the Mobile Hotspot button to the Windows 11 quick settings panel.

Turn off Hotspot in Windows 11

You can turn off the hotspot in Windows 11 from Settings or Quick Settings panel. Here is how.

From Settings

1. Open Windows 11 Settings.
2. Go to “Network & Internet > Mobile Hotspot.”
3. Turn off the “Mobile Hotspot” option.
4. With that, the hotspot is turned off.

From the Quick Settings panel

1. Click on the “Network” icon on the taskbar.
2. Click on the “Mobile Hotspot” button.
3. This will turn off the hotspot.
4. When turned off, the button’s accent color will disappear.

Important note: If you cannot see or find the Mobile Hotspot button in the Quick Settings panel, see the last section. It will show how you can add the Mobile Hotspot button to the Windows 11 quick settings panel.

That is all. It is that simple to turn off the hotspot in Windows 11.

Change hotspot password in Windows 11

If you don’t like the default hotspot password or think it is compromised or hard to remember, you can change it from the hotspot settings. Here is how to change the Windows 11 hotspot password.

1. Open the Settings app.
2. Click on “Network & Internet” on the sidebar.
3. Click on the “Mobile Hotspot” option.
4. Press the “Edit” button under the “Properties” section.
5. (Optional) Set a network name in the “Name” field.
6. Set a new password in the “Network password” field. The password should be at least eight characters long.
7. Click the Save button.
8. With that, you have successfully changed the hotspot password in Windows 11.

Detailed steps:

Open the Windows 11 Settings app with the “Win + I” shortcut. After that, go to the “Network & Internet > Mobile Hotspot” page. Here, click on the “Edit” button under the “Properties” section.

Now, if you don’t like the default name, type a name of your choice in the “Network name” field.

Next, type a password of your choice in the “Network password” field. As instructed by Windows 11, the password should be at least eight characters long. Additionally, I recommend you add a couple of special characters and numbers. That being said, it is a good practice to choose a password that is hard to guess but easy to remember.

(Optional) Windows 11 allows you to choose the Network Band on which the hotspot is shared if your laptop supports it. For example, if you want to share a hotspot on the 5GHz band, you can select that from the “Network band” dropdown menu. If you don’t know what it is, leave it as “Any available.”

Finally, click the “Save” button. With that, you’ve successfully changed the hotspot password and name.

I cannot find the Mobile Hotspot option in the Quick Settings panel

If you cannot find the Mobile Hotspot button in the Windows 11 Quick Settings panel, it might be hidden. In that case, you have to add the hotspot button to the Quick Settings panel manually. Here is how to do it.

1. Click on the “Network” icon on the taskbar.
2. Click on the “Edit” icon at the bottom.
3. Press the “Add” button.
4. Select the “Mobile Hotspot” option.
5. Click the “Done” button.
6. With that, the Mobile Hotspot button is added to Quick Settings.

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That is all. It is that simple to create a mobile hotspot in Windows 11 and turn it on when needed.

I hope this easy Windows 11 how-to guide helps you.

If you are stuck or need some help, comment below, and I will try to help as much as possible.