How to make virtual machine use real Wi-fi network?

Symptoms

• I would like to have a real Wi-Fi connection in my virtual machine.
• Wi-Fi adapter is working fine on Mac Os side
• Windows virtual machine recognize all network connections as wired connections

Cause

Virtual machine that underlies Parallels Desktop does not have a wireless adapter.
Parallels Desktop does not natively offer Wireless support (like a virtualized Wireless device). Instead, it connects directly to the Wireless device the Host uses.

Every PCI or PCI-Express device attached to the virtual machine is getting virtualized by the Parallels Desktop. Due to technical limitations no virtualization software allows for direct access to hardware devices like Wi-Fi adapter.

Resolution

As a workaround one can use a various Wireless USB network adapters.

List of possible adapters

For the purposes of this article we are using simple USB Wi-Fi adapter from one of the well known brands.

1. Plug your Wireless USB adapter into your Mac and then connect it to Windows virtual machine:

   

2. Make sure it got connected to your virtual machine:

   

3. Download drivers for your Wireless USB adapter model and proceed with installing drivers inside your virtual machine.

   

4. Once drivers are installed you should be able to see Wireless adapter available in Windows virtual machine network preferences.