Virtual Null Modem: Software Serial Port Emulation in Windows

Question

Virtualization

My "old" computer had two hardware serial COM ports (COM1 and COM2).
I experimented a lot with them.
For example, he connected them together with a null-modem cable, opened the COM1 file in his program, and in Windows on COM2 he “hung” the driver for direct connection of two computers via a serial port. And, thus, he established the most real network of two nodes "client" and "server". Moreover, he changed the roles of the “client” and “server” between Windows and his program in order to figure out how it all actually works when viewed from different “ends” of the null modem.
Now the good old computer went to a well-deserved rest. A brand new netbook took its place. But, he did not find a place for COM ports (there are only USB and LAN).
There was a “crazy” idea - to buy two USB-COM adapters (for example, Gembird UAS111) in order to continue experiments (with a local network via serial interfaces), connect them to each other with a null modem cable, and remember how it was ...
But, how I decided to spend 700 rubles on other (more useful) things - and was left without null modems.
Then I thought that it might be possible to completely programmatically emulate a serial port, so that on one side of the port there was my program, and on the other - the operating system.
This idea was prompted by the Microsoft Virtual-PC emulator program. In its settings, it was proposed to use a serial port in the guest machine, mapped to the I / O channel (pipe).
This idea is firmly stuck in my head, and I think that a similar COM-pipe can be somehow screwed to a “normal” OS (without raising a virtual machine).
Can someone tell me how to check this?

Answer 1

com0com advise, open-source, works great