Disable network sharing

I want to disable sharing files and folders completely. I followed this guide, but some of the the computers assosiated with my network are still showing up.

Cerawy said:

I want to disable network sharing completely. I followed this guide, but the other computers still shows up. Also, the sharing tab doesnt appear in properties.

You also have to disable Network Discovery in same dialogue as you disabled File and Printer Sharing. This will prevent computers from advertising themselves on the network and also prevent computers from looking up computers and devices that advertise themselves on the network.

I just did it. Some of the other computers still appears on my network.

Cerawy said:

I just did that. Some of the computers still appears on my computer.

Windows remembers these computers a while after settings changes. Reboot them all to see if they get removed from Network View.

The fault here is with the Computer Browser Service, As mentioned above it will eventually clear itself.


The following is a little bit more advanced but should work

To speed things up - from an elevated Command Prompt Run these two commands exactly ( letter case is important) :

ipconfig /flushdns
nbtstat -R

Also you can then set the Computer Browser service to Manual after stopping it and reboot

This should remove the records from the system and cache after around 15 Minutes

I did the ipconfig /flushdns and nbtstat -r commands, and they were both succesful. However, i have no way to check if it solved the problem, since i have aldready manually removed the other computers from the network, before I saw your post. I just know that disabling network discovery didn't solve it, even after i have restarted my computer several times. Is there anything else i can do to disable network sharing completely?

You are only seeing other computers because they have discovery on. You can see them but they cannot see you.

Turning off the computer browser service will add to the blocks to networking - Also until you are running the 1803 update due soon, don't forget to disable homegroup services which duplicate the older system services - It's totally removed from 1803

I just realized that i had set my wireless network to public for years. I have set it to private now, though.

Barman58 said:

Turning off the computer browser service will add to the blocks to networking - Also until you are running the 1803 update due soon, don't forget to disable homegroup services which duplicate the older system services - It's totally removed from 1803

I can't seem to find the computer browser service anywhere in services.

cereberus said:

You are only seeing other computers because they have discovery on. You can see them but they cannot see you.

I see. I guess i could try and test it with my laptop.

The computer browser is actually now just called Browser which can be a little confusing as most people will associate the word browser with the internet.

Info
The computer browser service runs on every system on a workgroup and one computer is elected as the Master Browser [This is normally the system that has been active for longest], which then keeps a record of the names and IP Addresses of all the computers on the network.

If you have the other network items disabled the browser service may be marked as stopped, but is still worth setting it to disabled, [or better still Manual, which will start the service if some application you use now or add in the future should need it ]