Windows 7: Creating a wi fi hotspot for smart phone

Would like to hear yr recommendations as to how I could best set up a wi fi hotspot with this laptop running on Win 7 Pro.
Haven't had a smart phone or other appliances so it's something new to me, have a friend visiting with a phone which needs wi fi access.
How would you go about this task?

Use this, very easy...

Maryfi - Turn your Windows 7 laptop into a Wi-Fi Hotspot

thanks DMHolt57 ... I d/loaded and installed it but don't u/stand this part:

"Note:

Before installing Maryfi to your computer it's very important to check your wireless card and turn
the switch ON, and check wireless settings in Windows Mobility Center in Control Panel. "

Not aware of a wireless card switch (search brings up nothing) and there is no mobility center in Control Panel ...

any suggestions?

I wouldn't worry about that, does your laptop have a wifi adapter? As long as your wifi adapter is on and operational, that's all you need.

Another option for you to consider is this: Connectify. In reality, you don't need either of these software packages in order to create a hotspot but they provide a convenient gui. See this article: Turn Your Windows 7 PC Into a Wireless Hotspot

thanks strollin,

i will read that article.

I'm sure it makes tech savvy people laugh but technical idiots like me stumble over words all the time ... eg you asked "does your laptop have a wifi adapter?"

well I put that term into search and nothing comes up so I don't know. The OS is Win 7 Pro ... would it come with that? or is it something I have to add? how do i find out?

it will take me a while to read the article but I will get back here later and report my progress ...

i do appreciate yr patience and willingness to help those (whatever the opposite of a geek is ) like me.

this via a later edit:

just had a suspicion ... this process may need Java RunTime in order to work ...
can anyone verify that?

________________________________
thanks again for yr help! appreciate that.

read the article and also found a tutorial on same topic but which-ever way I go the message ends up
"Windows could not set up ...(name given)"

This link shows you the command line method for creating a WiFi hot spot.

Yes, all laptops have a built in WiFi adaptor.

Windows 7 Tip of the Week: Use Wireless Hosted Networking to Share An Internet Connection Wirelessly

I don't know if I would be so confident as to say that ALL laptops have a WiFi adapter but I think it's a pretty safe bet that your laptop has a WiFi adapter unless it's very old.

ok the procedure seems pretty straight forward eg here:-
How to turn your PC into a wi-fi hotspot ? [HD] - YouTube

What happens is I get to the stage of filling in:
Network name: my hotspot
Security type: WPA-2 Personal
Security key: password entered

tick Save this network

then press Next and what comes up is:

Windows could not set up my hotspot.

So some fault somewhere ... or something not turned on .... don't know how to diagnose this ... any suggestions?

Are you able to try it again and let us know specifically the error that comes up?

If it fails again can you put the following into notepad:

And save it as hotspotevent.ps1, be sure to click the drop down menu under the input field and put it to any file.

Save it where you like and run it, once ran go to your C drive, open up "output_hotspot.txt" and let us know what it contains.