Network Sharing Problem

gmosley · Feb 21, 2022

I suddenly can't access drives on my Desktop PC from my laptop on my home network. On the PC, I've verified that in Network and Sharing Center under Change advanced sharing settings that, under Private, Network Discovery is enabled and that, under All Networks, Turn off password protected sharing is enabled.
On the laptop, under Network, I can see the Desktop PC. When I try to expand or access it, I get the Enter network credentials popup from Windows Security asking for User name and Password.
I upgraded to Windows 11 (Desktop and laptop) within the last month and can't remember if I've tried this access since then or not. It worked fine in Windows 10.

glasskuter · Mar 2, 2022

gmosley said:
On the laptop, under Network, I can see the Desktop PC. When I try to expand or access it, I get the Enter network credentials popup from Windows Security asking for User name and Password.

At this point are you able to enter your credentials and access the drives? The credentials here would be the username and password you have set on your PC.

gmosley · Mar 3, 2022

While I didn't get any responses, I finally tripped over a setting, changed it, and lo and behold, access to the desktop by the laptop began working again. I believe the setting I changed was Settings/Network & internet/Wi-Fi/WiFiName properties where I found Public (Recommended) was selected. I selected Private instead and the problem was solved. Just different enough from Windows 10 to totally confuse me.

Bree · Mar 3, 2022

gmosley said:
I found Public (Recommended) was selected. I selected Private instead and the problem was solved. Just different enough from Windows 10 to totally confuse me.

Yes, that would do it. There's no sharing on a Public network, whether in W10 or W11. The settings aren't really that different in W11 or W10 though.