The release candidate of Windows 7 contains a new technology called VWiFi that has been developed by Microsoft for some time. VWiFi stands for virtual WiFi which allows the Windows 7 WiFi hardware to act as two separate adapters which makes it possible to connect to two hotspots simultaneously or to use one adapter as a access point. Microsoft has limited VWiFi on Windows 7 to one virtual adapter, probably because of latency and performance impacts that multiple virtual adapters would have.
“On Windows 7 and later, the operating system installs a virtual device if a Hosted Network capable wireless adapter is present on the machine. This virtual device normally shows up in the “Network Connections Folder” as ‘Wireless Network Connection 2’ with a Device Name of ‘Microsoft Virtual WiFi Miniport adapter’ if the computer has a single wireless network adapter. This virtual device is used exclusively for performing software access point (SoftAP) connections [...]. The lifetime of this virtual device is tied to the physical wireless adapter. If the physical wireless adapter is disabled, this virtual device will be removed as well.”
Long posted a large article on his blog and dug up additional information about the feature which cannot be used currently thanks to missing driver support. It is however expected that drivers will be supplied soon to take advantage of the feature.
