What is the purpose of the Microsoft Loopback Adapter?

Question

Just as the question says, what is the Microsoft Loopback Adapter, and as a bonus, what scenerios as a developer would it be useful? I\'ve noticed it\'s been required when i

Answer 1

Some software requires some network functionality, even if the machine in question doesn't have network functionality. The loopback is a dummy network driver, which can have real network protocols bound to it. This allows the software to install properly, even though there isn't a real network card installed in the machine.