Yet another W10 network credentials junk thread.. but plain talk !

pangycat · 22 May 2016

I have got W10 now including two W10 and 2 W7s on my home network... Different users and passwords on each one and all have a shared folder. Yes I set the network config for 'don't ask for passwords'... BUT of course I am asked for credentials when trying to access the other computer's shared folders and of course I don't understand....I have looked at all the threads on this but I still don't get it...
Time for plain talk:
A Is it asking for my credentials on the target computer like remote desktop does ? I am sure the other users won't give me their user/password...
B Is it asking it asking for my username and password on my computer ? This computer. Like it doesn't know who is logged on to this computer ? My user and my password ? Are those credentials passed to the other computers in any way or are they kept safe on here ?
I don't have a Microsoft account.... do I need one ? What a mess, the whole world is asking this and can't figure it out so I am not alone...

Can anyone give me really simple, short, lucid way to network my W10s and W7s and get past all this credential junk ... ? Now here is a laugh.....my last job included managing a network of 15 work computers ... If I gave a damn any more I would be embarrassed... How can Microsoft release this on the public worldwide ? I have never been able to make sense of Microsoft's explanations of anything; neither has my wife actually and she is a senior IT bod ! If Joe public can't tell me in plain English, then I will never know.. thanks in advance ...

linw · 22 May 2016

It is a security thing. When the Credential Manager asks you to input the username it expects the pcname and the username of the computer being accessed like this:- PCname\username. Next it wants that user's password.

If the affected user won't give you this info then one could assume they don't want you to have access thus nullifying the share. You would then, presumably, need to create a 'public' user to hold the shared folders. Or a Dropbox share?

bro67 · 23 May 2016

Because Guest Access for SMB/CIFS no longer exists, you will be asked for credentials. You can save those credentials under your User Profile. You just need to plug in the IP of the machine, Username and Password. It is good to have a dedicated username just for file sharing. Makes things a lot easier.

pangycat · 23 May 2016

Hell's bells it's worse that I thought Jim... It sounds like it's the same as remote desktop ! There is no way the users are going to give me their user and password for their machines...... Would your teenage daughter give you theirs ? <linw> I don't understand your point about users not wanting to me to access their machines if they won't give me their user/password, because if a user shares a folder and makes it 'everyone' and read/write, then how is that not wanting to share their machine on the network ? <bro 67> , having a 'spoof' user on every machine where I can use their credentials would seem to work, but I could then log onto their machines with remote desktop and if they weren't careful to have spoof as a user (not administrator), I could change their passwords and nosy about in EVERY folder, not just the shared ones ? Their Outlook ? Imagine ! All this just so I can access a shared folder ? I have a W10 drive and W7 drive on all the network computers, so it looks like W7 will have to live on if this is the best that MS can do...

linw · 23 May 2016

There does seem to be a way to do what you want but it is up to you to test and weigh up any consequences.

On the sharing comp, from an admin command prompt, activate the guest account (net user guest /active:yes).

After restarting, the share should show with no credentials prompt. (If anyone has set up credentials already, you need to remove them).

Whether this is any more 'dangerous' than the win 7 implicit share I don't know so over to you to test and decide.

This worked here with a Pro Insider, a Pro 1511 and a Home 1511.

pangycat · 24 May 2016

linw said:

There does seem to be a way to do what you want but it is up to you to test and weigh up any consequences.

On the sharing comp, from an admin command prompt, activate the guest account (net user guest /active:yes).

After restarting, the share should show with no credentials prompt. (If anyone has set up credentials already, you need to remove them).

Whether this is any more 'dangerous' than the win 7 implicit share I don't know so over to you to test and decide.

This worked here with a Pro Insider, a Pro 1511 and a Home 1511.

I will give that a shot... thankyou... I am off on the roof today to block off the woodpecker hole in the chimney before the 4 days of thunderstorms arrive. After that I will try anything that doesn't involve jumping through crazy hoops just to do what Windows 7 does so effortlessly. I wonder how small businesses with say 20 computers do it ? They must be using home-groups I reckon, and then fighting to maintain them as machines switch in and out of the group ... What is the advantage of windows 10 again ? lol !

pangycat · 24 May 2016

ok turned on the guest account on the target computer per your command line..... and the W10 machine called for credentials which I entered as <target computer > and then guest\<no password>
It was straight into the shared folders...
I asked to save the credentials then checked in credentials manager and no... nothing saved

So I entered the credentials directly into credential manager and saved and and hooray no credential request next time

ok so now I have the same sort of security as windows 7... which is none (once someone is past my mac address filter and and hardware firewall and etc etc etc... access to the shared drive only though...

Is there a big risk with having guest account on (with no password) , or do I need to bite the bullet and set up a 'spoof' account with password on every hosting computer ? Am I right in thinking that the guest account is no worse than every W7 machine with a shared folder ?

bro67 · 24 May 2016

Do not turn on Guest account. It is not needed to share folders and files. The risk is that anyone can get on the network or if you are on a Public Hotspot, anyone can gain access to your machine.

Also no one can gain access to the user credentials on a machine, without knowing them in the first place. If you cannot trust others in the household, there is not much else that you can do then.

pangycat · 24 May 2016

bro67 said:

Do not turn on Guest account. It is not needed to share folders and files. The risk is that anyone can get on the network or if you are on a Public Hotspot, anyone can gain access to your machine.

Also no one can gain access to the user credentials on a machine, without knowing them in the first place. If you cannot trust others in the household, there is not much else that you can do then.

Yes I agree with you on guest account and I would use a spoof user if I went the credential way.
If (I said IF) I have folder called 'former girlfriends', I don't want my wife to have the logon credentials to my machine. She has the shared folders under windows 7 and that's all she requires... Imagine I am out and she physically sits at my keyboard and logs in with the credentials.. She will see a lot more than shared folders.. She will see all folders visible to standard users... !! I know I can button down folder permissions for a 'standard user' within a user logon, but just one mistake..... Nope I don't want to give people my logon.

I reckon credentials are ok for servers, but not on a home network where it can cause divorce... I have been looking at homegroup but that is an even bigger nightmare if a now non-existent machine set it up... We are taking manipulating services and system files to try and right it..

Windows 10 looks fun for dark cold winter-just trying to make it work as well at W7 !

bro67 · 25 May 2016

First off there is no spoofing done if you set a user account on every machine with the same username and password. Homegroup has nothing to do with servers. If someone sits at your computer and gains access by knowing what your username and password is, again that comes down to worrying too much about the what ifs. There is nothing in this world that can stop someone from finding a way of knowing your credentials, if you tell others. If you do not, they will never know what your password is for that account.

You are worrying too much about all of this little stuff that no one even looks at, in a home environment. Because it is up to you the user to take care of your own network. Windows 10 has nothing to do with trying to make it work as well as Windows 7. Windows 10 actually works better then Windows 7 when it comes to how it uses memory management and other things.

I would be more worried about the price of Milk and Gas, before fretting over workstation logins. My son and wife know mine. I know my wife & son's. I use their same credentials when I set up our NAS, so that they would have a single sign-on. Our household is very open about our private lives, because we have nothing to hide from each other and it also does not make problems when someone imagines that someone is hiding things.