Installing a Loopback Adapter in Windows Server 2008 R2

Our Oracle Developer just came up to me and asked that a loopback adapter be installed on one of our development servers. Now in the Linux world, it seems to me that the loopback adapter is installed automatically, although I could be wrong. Never the less, I was a bit surprised by the request. Here's what I did to install the loopback adapter in Windows Server 2008 R2.

1. Click Start > Control Panel > Device Manager
2. Click on Network Adapters
3. Click the "Action" menu
4. Click "Add legacy hardware"
5. Click "Next >"
6. Click "Install the hardware that I manually select from a list (Advanced)"
7. Click "Next >"
8. Select "Network adapters" from the list, click "Next >"
9. In the Manufacturer list, select "Microsoft", in the "Network Adapter" list select "Microsoft Loopback Adapter", click "Next >"
10. Click "Next >"
11. Click "Close"

The newly installed loopback adapter can then be configured the same way as any other network adapter.