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I have an old Dell Venue 8 Pro tablet which I've upgraded to Windows 10. Today I noticed it started advertising a new hotspot called DIRECT-OR<MY_MACHINE_NAME>ms3W. It appeared out of nowhere - I haven't seen it until now and I'm sure I would given that I often scan for networks with my other devices when the tablet is on and the tablet's system name is quite distinct. I wasn't able to find a system setting for WiFi Direct or mobile hotspot as the option is greyed out in the little network settings tile area (the tablet doesn't have access to GSM).

I'm puzzled by this behaviour and a little concerned. Does anyone now of any Windows features which might enable a hotspot functionality? Or is it likely to be a some malicious presence on my machine? A few weeks ago I was messing around with the radio drivers as the ones provided by Dell drain battery in standby mode. Could I have accidentally installed something weird?

KubaFYI
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1 Answers1

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'm puzzled by this behaviour and a little concerned. Does anyone now of any Windows features which might enable a hotspot functionality?

Windows 10 supports creating a Hotspot. Windows 10 also supports Wi-Fi Direct. Based on the name of the access point, the only thing it could be is a Wi-Fi Direct access point.

Or is it likely to be some malicious presence on my machine?

It is harmless. It is absolutely NOT a malicious application.

A few weeks ago I was messing around with the radio drivers as the ones provided by Dell drain battery in standby mode. Could I have accidentally installed something weird?

Windows 10 supports a Wi-Fi Direct API but there must also be hardware support. It sounds like you enabled a device driver feature by accident.

Ramhound
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