When I type ipconfig /all command in Windows command prompt, it shows some adapters with description of "Microsoft Wi-Fi Direct Virtual Adapter" (see image below).
Where did they come from and what are they used for?
How can I remove it and will it cause any issue if removed?
I am sure that I only have one physical WiFi adapter in my laptop.
Microsoft Wi-Fi Direct Virtual Adapter is mainly used to create wireless hotspot and let other computers use internet through your computer.
This technology will virtualize your Wireless network adapter much in the same way VMWare/VirtualBox virtualizes your entire operating system. Once it has been virtualized, you can convert one physical wireless adapter into two virtual ones. This lets you to then connect one virtual wireless adapter to your regular wireless network and use the other virtual adapter to connect to another network such as an WiFi hotspot and let others to connect to your Windows machine wirelessly like they would connect to a normal AP.
You can do this from both GUI and cmd.
From this page
Virtual WiFi helps a user connect to multiple IEEE 802.11 networks with one WiFi card. It works by exposing multiple virtual adapters, one for each wireless network to which connectivity is desired. Virtual WiFi uses a network hopping scheme to switch the wireless card across the desired wireless networks. Switching between networks is transparent to the applications, such that the user feels she is connected to multiple wireless networks simultaneously. Virtual WiFi is implemented as an NDIS intermediate driver, and a user-level service in Windows XP. Virtual WiFi interacts with the card device driver at the lower end, and network protocols at the upper end. The buffering protocol is implemented in the kernel and the switching logic is implemented as a user-level service.
