File sharing problems accessing viewable PCs on a home network - Windows 10 can - privacy and security settings

I have been trying to set up a home network between 4 PCs with limited success for a few months. I'm trying to understand the basics of which settings are preventing access on which computers. Basic information does not seem to be out there. All of my research has turned up solutions that don't work or extremely complicated settings for network administrators (which I am not).

I have 2 laptops and 2 desktops. One of the laptops is running Windows 10 Home edition, the other one is running Windows 11 Pro. The 2 desktops are also one of Windows 10 Home and the other one is Windows 11 Pro.

I updated the Windows 11 Pro laptop from 22H2 to 24H2 today and now I can no longer access any other PC on the network. Before the update the 11 Pro laptop could see all 4 PCs but only access the 2 desktops. But now each of the other 3 PCs comes up with "Windows cannot access \\NAME." "Error Code 0x80070035 The network path was not found" But the icons for the other PCs are there so the network path IS found. None of my sharing settings appear to have changed.

The Windows 11 Pro desktop similarly has never been able to access any other PC on the network - however the desktop is accessible from other computers.

The Windows 10 Home desktop is able to access other PCs and was accessible by the Windows Pro laptop before the update to 24H2.

The Windows 10 Home laptop has never been accessible either to or from any other PC on the network but it is viewable and can see all 4 connected PCs.

All of the PCs icons are viewable from all other PCs on the network so they are connected, just not accessible in certain instances. Also, all 4 PCs can see and access themselves.

Questions:
If the connection says "Windows cannot access \\NAME" is it being caused by the PC I'm on or the PC I'm trying to connect to?

Do I need to enable Security and Sharing settings on the top level C: drive? What about the "User" folder? Are these settings top-down or can they just be applied to a specific folder like Desktop or Documents?

What is the difference between Security settings and Sharing settings since they both have the same options to configure? I have seen endless variations on which of these settings to use so can someone tell me which settings I should use for Security and which settings for Sharing on a single administrator user on a home network and why not use the others? I'm not configuring for individual users. I want to be able to have full access to all 4 computers to move files between them.

These appear to be the most common settings (with of course full permissions checked in all cases):

---- Everyone
---- System
---- Network
---- Authentic Users
---- Administrators (THIS_PC\Administrators)
---- Users (THIS_PC\Users)
---- THIS_PC(THIS_PC\this_pc)
---- Account Unknown (S1-15-3 etc.) - the system keeps adding this in a few settings whatever it is

I have researched all of the sharing and settings fixes I could find (none of which are working for me):

---- Turn on File Sharing on folders starting with C drive
---- Turn on file and printer sharing (I've tried both Public and Private and both) and turn off password sharing
---- Windows Features -> Turn Windows Features On
----- Check SMB 1.0/CFIS File Sharing Support (and three sub items or just the middle one?)
----- Uncheck Internet Protocol Version 6
---- Ethernet - Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4) Properties - WINS - Enable NetBIOS over TCP/IP
---- Services - Start and set to Automatic for each of these:
----- Credential Manager
----- Function Discovery Provider Host
----- SSD Discovery Properties
----- TCP/IP NetBIOS Helper Properties
----- UPnP Device Host Properties

---- Enable Anti-virus Firewall access (Bitdefender in my case)

Help with understanding this and solving my connection problems would be greatly appreciated.

For anyone else reading this and having the same problem I found a solution for Windows 24H here:

Method 5: Use PowerShell commands:

Click the windows key, search for and open PowerShell (run as administrator), enter the following command and press enter:

Set-SmbClientConfiguration -EnableInsecureGuestLogons $true -Force
Set-SmbClientConfiguration -RequireSecuritySignature $false -Force
Set-SmbServerConfiguration -RequireSecuritySignature $false -Force

Restart your computer and check if the problem is solved. (Click enter for each of the three commands above)

This works!!!

I still don't understand all of the Sharing and Security settings but this has reconnected me to all of the other PCs. Now I need to try it all the other computers.

Followup. The above solution works in some cases some of the time. It does NOT work for WIndows 10 and on Windows 11 I still can't connect to the 24H laptop but I can connect to the 24H desktop with the same settings.

I guess nobody knows settings that will work universally to connect all computers.

Charles_I said:

EnableInsecureGuestLogons $true -Force

Click to expand...

My opinion is that this is not recommended. I don’t think I’m alone thinking this.

Enable Insecure Guest Logons - True

Require Security Signature - False

Think about it?

I've been working on a similar problem on two new Win11 Home laptops. Network sharing hasn't worked correctly from the beginning. Shares showing up but not accessible, requests for network credentials not working or shares simply not showing.
After checking every imaginable setting multiple times and redoing everything that might affect network sharing, I finally stumbled upon a simple solution to my problem.

WINDOWS HELLO and PIN login

The fix below worked for me

Start--Settings--Accounts--Options--Sign-in Options
Set Only Allow Windows Hello Sign-in to OFF
Log off and sign back in with User Name and Password

User credentials will then be stored correctly and network sharing should operate properly.

antspants: It does sound insecure but in my case this is a home setup, I have no guests using my devices and the only security signature I need is for my overall network.

A -Tec - I tried this but Accounts logs me into my Micrsoft account online and I don't see any Sign-in Options.

I've determined that the problem is with wi-fi connections - I can reach computers that are directly connected to the modem but cannot connect to any that are connected through wi-fi. Is this a modem wi-fi settings issue?

I just started a similar thread entitled "file sharing error - Windows cannot access \\<Computer>".
One member offered the same Set-SmbClientConfiguration -RequireSecuritySignature $false -Force fix which worked for him.

Others have also suspected Wi-Fi connections as a possible culprit, but I haven't seen how to resolve that.
A_Tec in this thread looked to an issue with Microsoft accounts and the sign-in method used. However, I don't think that is my answer because the problem persisted even when I signed in with a Local account.

Currently I have the following computers:

Desktops:
1. DarkMatter: Windows 11 24H2 (wired)
2. Lightning: Windows 10 Pro / Windows 7 Home (wired)
3. Phoenix: Windows 10 Home / Windows 7 Pro (wired)
Laptops:
1. Starship: Windows 11 Pro 24H2 (wireless)
2. EventHorizon: Windows 10 Pro (wireless)

Click to expand...

I have the same account on all the computers. Because of this I can easily share among all computers no matter what the version of Windows. I even shared files with two computers with Windows XP until I retired them.

I don't depend upon seeing a computer in File Explorer > Network. I usually use shortcuts to each network computer. Using these shortcuts a computer is always accessible as long it is turned on and is not sleeping.

I created a folder on my desktop called My Network. In this folder I have shortcuts to all the computers on my network.



Note there is one computer I used to have that had no common user name with my other computers. When I connected to the other computers I had to log on with my common user name and password.

My common user name is of type Administrator. That simplifies permissions.

Here are my Advanced sharing settings on my Windows 11 laptop.
The main thing to select is Private Networks on the setting for all computer in the network.



Here are the settings for the shared folder Xshare on my laptop:

1a. Right-click on folder and select Properties
1b. Select Sharing tab
1b. Select Advanced Sharing



2a. Check Share this folder
2b. Select Permissions



3a. Since I want to read and write to the files from any computer I have to set that
3b. I add the common user MisterEd
3c. I select this user
3d. I select to Allow all permissions for this user



I now can read or write any file in the share folder from any computer on my network.

For the record or for anyone curious . . . .

I have had ZERO problems as long as the network location is a mapped network drive.

If you add a folder or network location that way, in Windows 11 24H2 I have had zero problems.

Other non-mapped network locations may work differently due to changes in Windows security.
That said, map a network drive, and it'll likely solve some problems.

futbolfan said:

I just started a similar thread entitled "file sharing error - Windows cannot access \\<Computer>".
One member offered the same Set-SmbClientConfiguration -RequireSecuritySignature $false -Force fix which worked for him.

Others have also suspected Wi-Fi connections as a possible culprit, but I haven't seen how to resolve that.
A_Tec in this thread looked to an issue with Microsoft accounts and the sign-in method used. However, I don't think that is my answer because the problem persisted even when I signed in with a Local account.

Click to expand...

That didn't work for me either (security false force), I tried it and it made no difference to any connection.

I agree that signing into Microsoft has nothing to do with running a home network. I never sign into Microsoft and the connections all work - the problem is some of them only work one way and some work both ways but none of them don't work at all. So it has nothing to do with signing in. Maybe if you are running some cloud stuff but I never use any cloud for anything. It's a big marketing sales ploy.

MisterEd said:

I add the common user MisterEd

Click to expand...

Interesting. How do you go about creating a "common user"?

PCUser said:

I have had ZERO problems as long as the network location is a mapped network drive.

Click to expand...

I can't map a network drive to computer that I can't get access to. "Access denied."

Charles_I said:

Interesting. How do you go about creating a "common user"?

Click to expand...

I don't normally use network drives because they are unnecessary.

The important thing that at least one folder is shared on each networked computer. To test sharing I select the shortcut for a networked computer. The shortcut is simply "\\" + the computer name. For example the shortcut for computer Starship is \\Starship. If the shortcut doesn't work then there is something wrong in your network setup. Naturally the other networked computer must be turned on and awake.

In the shared folders the default is read-only for all users. I can stop there if that is all I want. However, my goal is to have shared folders with read and write access. In other words I can modify or add files in the shared folders from any network computer.

The user name that is common to all my networked computers is MisterEd

1. In Permissions I select Add



2. I select the box Enter the object names to select



3a. I enter MisterEd which is my common user name
3b. I select Check Names



4a. If the name is a valid user name it shows it
4b. Select OK



5. The user MisterEd is shown in the list of user names



6a. Select user name MisterEd in the list
6b. Check all 3 permission boxes
6c. Select OK

This is my current situation - I'm simplifying it even though I have a couple more laptops because the laptops are all behaving the same whether they are Windows 10 or Windows 11.

I have tried every sharing setting/solution I have ever seen. It doesn't matter if the OS is Windows 10 or 11 the results are the same:

Desktop_1 (Windows 10): Ethernet cable connected to modem
-> can see all 3 computers
-> can connect to Desktop 2 (also Ethernet to modem connection)
-> can NOT connect to Laptop (on Wi-Fi)

Desktop_2 (Windows 11): Ethernet cable connected to modem (same behaviour as Desktop_1)
-> can see all 3 computers
-> can connect to Desktop 1 (also Ethernet to modem connection)
-> can NOT connect to Laptop (on Wi-Fi)

Laptop (Windows 11): Wi-Fi connected to Network
-> can see all 3 computers
-> can connect to BOTH Desktop_1 and Desktop_2

So, the Wi-Fi connected laptop can connect to either Ethernet connected PC, but the Ethernet connected PCs can not connected to the laptop. The Wi-Fi connection is only one way. Error is "Windows Cannot Access\\LAPTOP"