Networking peer to peer vrs Server --- file and printer sharing and standard users

Do people successfully set up file and printer sharing, with standard user accounts/mixed admin IN PEER TO PEER with NO Windows Server ?. I know its safer to use a standard account, but most often people do not. Most of the time when a peer to peer network is setup all the users are admin. Its hard enough to make all the users see shared files and printers when admin accounts are used. If one user is a standard account, that user wont be able to print or see shares all the time. This situation can't be setup right until we have a server that sets up UAC and File permissions per user. ? Windows does not know what to listen as far as what service is in charge of permissions and UAC, and random things always continue to happen if no server is involved. am I right about this ? And really there is no simple way to manage this without a server. When I say peer to peer I mean like 5 users who share files and printers who do not have a server.

LASTBOOMER66 said:

Do people successfully set up file and printer sharing, with standard user accounts/mixed admin IN PEER TO PEER with NO Windows Server ?

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Yes.
I've been doing so for ages.

LASTBOOMER66 said:

Its hard enough to make all the users see shared files and printers

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I have no problems doing so.

A consolidated network setup checklist for Windows 10 and 11 - my post #4 - TenForums


Denis

LASTBOOMER66 said:

Its hard enough to make all the users see shared files and printers when admin accounts are used. If one user is a standard account, that user wont be able to print or see shares all the time. This situation can't be setup right until we have a server that sets up UAC and File permissions per user. ? Windows does not know what to listen as far as what service is in charge of permissions and UAC, and random things always continue to happen if no server is involved. am I right about this ? And really there is no simple way to manage this without a server

Click to expand...

Currently I have no problems with sharing but all my systems run 11. As far as systems not showing in network map, yes, some folks have this issue, usually when running mixed versions of Windows. It is easy enough to work around by accessing other computers using computer name or ip address and creating shortcuts to those paths.

As far as file permissions, it is by design as a security mesure. This can be solved by creating windows credentials

All kinds of networking issues are a result of Microsoft tightening security for Windows 11 24h2 and above.

Create a Windows credential for an account & password on all computers on your network you are sharing files between. It must be a password, not a pin. While you can still use a pin to login to a device, you must restart the device and log into it using a password at least once for this to work.

Even if you are using the same MS account on multiple machines, a credential should be created.
In other words, Each computer should have a credential for each of the other computers it is sharing files or printers to/from.


To create a credential:
Go to Control Panel>Credentials> Windows Credentials>add a windows credential

In the "Internet or network address" box, type the name of the computer on the network that you want to access.
In the User name and Password boxes, type the user name and password that you use for that computer, and then click OK.
Note: It must be a password, not a pin.
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If using BLANK passwords

allow blank password use on the machine that is hosting the shares.

Open RegEdit and go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Lsa. Set the LimitBlankPasswordUse value to 0. Restart Windows.
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if you cloned any of the machines and try to set up file sharing, they probably have duplicate sids so they cannot share files until you fix that. Machines must have unique SIDs