Learning about communication between 2 laptops

Smiley1 · 22 Oct 2016

I have a 3 year old laptop running Windows 10 Anniversary Edition. It is having some issues that had me purchase a new laptop. I'll call the old laptop A and the new one B.

A and B have both been set up with the same Microsoft account. The network settings for both of them are identical: Network Discover is on, File and Printer Sharing off. They are on a private network behind a router, both on wifi. Under "Homegroup", A says it is ready to create. B says it is ready to join.

With File Explorer, under Network, both laptops show B listed, but A cannot see anything in it. Neither one lists A.

The first puzzling thing was related to the desktop. I had not transferred any files or pictures from A to B yet. (Family crisis, didn't have time.) On A, I have the background display set to a slideshow in a specific folder which only resides on A's hard drive. It is not stored in the cloud anywhere. B has a few pictures that came preloaded on it. I chose one of those factory pictures for the desktop background display. I walked into the room where A was, and THAT picture was on the desktop background. I changed it back to slideshow, to a different folder of pictures that resides on A's hard drive.

Today, I powered up B, and shortly after the desktop loaded, the background changed to one of the pictures from the folder that only resides on A's hard drive. I'm curious about why that happened.

I don't really understand networking and I don't need to set up any file sharing between these two laptops. A is going to be out of commission when I have the time to get B set up properly. I'm just curious about why the display settings on one impact the other.

I'm trying to get the Anniversary Edition installed on B, but so far, B is refusing to find it. Aha, even as I typed that, B finally did find it and it's probably getting it from A, judging from the download speed. (I have satellite internet, download speed is not great.)

This is a trivial topic compared to most others here and not a problem per se, I just wondered if anyone might have the time for a quick explanation.

Thanks!

Samuria · 22 Oct 2016

You desktop photo is part of your profile which is synced when you login with the same account on any pc even if its miles away. you want sharing on if you want to copy files some wifi routers block access to local pcs by default

bro67 · 22 Oct 2016

Personally I would just use Local accounts not Live accounts. Roaming accounts with the Live service do tend to cause issues. Also WiFi Access Points and Gateways do not block SMB/CIFS by default. That is a Firewall Rule that when Windows set the network adapter to Public, not Private when on your network.

Smiley1 · 23 Oct 2016

OK, thanks...so it's a profile thing. @bro67, some of what you said is a bit over my head. Both laptops are on a private network and for updates, I have allowed them to get updates from each other, but not other computers on the internet. (I have a little old netbook that I power up once in a while. I managed to get it updated to Windows 10 as well, and I figured I would save bandwidth if I let it get its updates from the other laptop.

I'm afraid to make changes to any accounts and get into trouble doing stuff I don't fully understand, so I'll leave the profiles as is. I just thought it was peculiar and unexpected that the laptops were mirroring each other that way, especially with .jpg pictures that only physically reside on one hard drive and not the cloud.

bro67 · 23 Oct 2016

Basic Computer & Networking 101 stuff. Your problem is not with your network. If you log in with an email address, that is called a Microsoft Live account. If you log in with a simple username, that is called a local account. You have to make the changes with the accounts from Live to Local if you are getting changes on different computers that you do not want that to happen with. If you stay as is, the Roaming profiles will continue to make changes between computers, no matteer which one you log into first or last.

Smiley1 · 23 Oct 2016

@bro67: Very good explanation. Thank you. :)

bro67 · 24 Oct 2016

No problem. With the changes, it is a head scratcher for some until the lightbulb goes off. I personally would rather do the old school user login than what Microsoft wants you to do, since they treat the OS as a Domain workstation when you log in with the Live login. It is great if you are using two like machines that have the same hardware and you are okay with it.

The worst part of this newer form of login, is that a lot of people do not know how to easily navigate the newer Tablet based System settings window, which will end up replacing Control Panel. Even Microsoft's training material and videos do not give enough information for a user who say has been managing to use Windows 98 all of these years or have not used a computer since the days of Punch Cards and Punch tape (my mother is an example of that.). It is going to be a whole new experience.