Does windows 11 provide virtual com ports?

Question

Does windows 11 provide virtual com ports? Can I configure a virtual com port without third party software?

Answer 1

Windows 11 does not include a general-purpose virtual COM port (virtual serial port) driver that can be created and used arbitrarily without third‑party software.

Built-in COM port support in current Microsoft documentation is focused on:

• Redirecting an existing physical serial/COM port from a local Windows device into a remote session over Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP), such as Azure Virtual Desktop or Microsoft Dev Box. This requires that a real serial/COM port and peripheral exist on the local device; Windows then redirects that port into the remote session, but does not create a standalone virtual COM port on the local system.
• Adding virtual COM ports to Hyper‑V virtual machines (for example, for kernel debugging) using PowerShell, where the COM port is backed by a named pipe, not by a generic virtual loopback device for applications.

Examples from the documentation:

1. RDP serial/COM redirection (requires a real local COM port)
   • Serial/COM port redirection uses “opaque low-level redirection” between a local device and a remote session.
   • A serial or COM port on the local device and a peripheral that connects to it are required.
   • Drivers for the peripheral must be installed in the remote session.
   • Redirection can be allowed or blocked via Group Policy (for example, the Do not allow COM port redirection setting under Remote Desktop Session Host → Device and Resource Redirection).
   • This does not create a new virtual COM port on the local Windows 11 machine; it only exposes an existing local COM port inside the remote session.
2. Hyper‑V virtual COM ports (for VMs, not for the host)
   • Generation 2 Hyper‑V VMs do not expose COM ports by default. COM ports can be added via PowerShell using Set-VMComPort, typically mapped to a named pipe, for scenarios like kernel debugging.
   • Example:

          Set-VMFirmware -VMName 'TestVM' -EnableSecureBoot Off
          Set-VMComPort -VMName 'TestVM' -Number 1 -Path '\\.\pipe\TestPipe'
     

   • These COM ports exist inside the VM and are not general-purpose virtual COM ports on the Windows 11 host.

Therefore, without third‑party software, Windows 11 can:

• Redirect existing physical COM ports into remote sessions (RDP/Azure Virtual Desktop/Dev Box) when enabled via policy and supported clients.
• Provide virtual COM ports inside Hyper‑V virtual machines for debugging via named pipes.

Windows 11 does not provide a built-in mechanism to create arbitrary loopback or paired virtual COM ports on the local system for application‑to‑application communication; that scenario still requires third‑party virtual COM port drivers.

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References:

• Configure serial or COM port redirection over the Remote Desktop Protocol (azure-virtual-desktop)
• Configure serial or COM port redirection over the Remote Desktop Protocol (dev-box)
• Should I create a generation 1 or 2 virtual machine in Hyper-V?
• Setting Up Kernel-Mode Debugging of a Virtual Machine Manually using a Virtual COM Port