Windows 10 a major FAIL

I agree with the HomeGroup being removed. It never worked. Just go to Network & Sharing Settings, enable all that stuff, and Map A Network Drive and you're done.

Some while back, Microsoft realized that the traditional method of "sharing" and "mapping" drives was more complicated than many home and small office users could reasonably understand, it created the Homegroup feature. Too simplistic for most actual system admins, Homegroups became popular and were relied upon for connecting small home or office networks.

The situation now is that Microsoft is discontinuing the Homegroup feature that the homes and offices mentioned above had come to rely on, without replacing it with a similarly simple mechanism. Yes, explicit sharing and mapping of network computer drives is still available, but the owners ("users") of those small networks are no better equipped to conquer the sharing and mapping mechanism today than they were when Microsoft first identified that sharing and mapping was a barrier many of them cannot or will not vault.

To "add new insult and injury to the just-mentioned insult and injury", the sharing and mapping mechanisms themselves have been restricted to fewer protocols than in prior times, and the available default protocols are incompatible with [older] hardware and [out-of-date] software that some of these homes and offices by choice or necessity run. ~And did I mention IOS and Android devices that no longer attach? Oy!

Like most tech firms, Microsoft displays a hubris invisible within the corporation but whose effect is crippling to a vulnerable part of its customer base. Surely within the update procedure, there could have been written detection of such vulnerable clients based on the in-place hw and sw architecture, with at-installation-time warnings of the deleterious effect of the standard update and with options to either not install the update at all or to install only non-offending parts that would not break the existing networks out there. But the PMs, Devs and Testers are never confronted with having to make such old stuff work, so they remain blissfully unaware until product release, after which they can be contemptuous of anyone still obtaining value from old tech.

My own Homegroup experience is vitually nil, as my network has employed share and map features for some years now. But I can tell anyone here or listening from the Windows dev and product management team, that Windows sharing and mapping capabilities are no longer universally reliable ways to actually share devices and files. Of five in-house workstations, two stubbornly resist sharing even though they can see and use shares from other workstations. Standing on my head and reciting incantations have not resolved the issues, regardless of the precise tactics and instructions [i.e. registry, services, installed pkgs, et al] given on this and other sites. [And for those who say to create shares with full control by everyone, I say b*llsh*t.] I have not made the latest security updates only to open devices to any login on the network and potentially off.

What have been given as solutions work for some and not for others, and for a great number of owners/users are beyond their ken. Just because someone thinks, perhaps logically, that a treatment "should" work does not compel the vast variety of hardware and software installs to submit to the treatment.

So please allow me to recommend less arrogance in statement of convictions on TenForums and elsewhere, with realization that your experience is within a limited galaxy, while the universe is much larger and more diverse and that it contains any number of unpleasant surprises for even the most brilliant analyst.

Be well. Prosper. "Illegitimati non carborundum."

There, I've said it. [Chris Rock might even be proud of me.]

ITgreybeard said:

So please allow me to recommend less arrogance in statement of convictions on TenForums and elsewhere, with realization that your experience is within a limited galaxy, while the universe is much larger and more diverse and that it contains any number of unpleasant surprises for even the most brilliant analyst.

It isn't arrogant to express an opinion. Personally I couldn't figure out how to use HomeGroup so I ignored it for a decade until it vanished.

I had to look up Chris Rock by the way - you brightened my day with that (but I'll not share it with my mother I don't think).

Welcome to the forums :)

Thanks for the tip. 🙂

bro67 said:

It was known for a very long time that Microsoft was doing away with Homegroup. As for not knowing what is coming down the pipe. There are plenty of places to find out what is happening. Everything New in Windows 10s April 2018 Update, Available Now
Windows 10, version 1803 - Features that have been removed | Microsoft Docs
Windows 10 April 2018 Update: The ultimate changelog | Windows Central
Windows 10 Redstone: A guide to the builds | Computerworld

Yes for those who daily, read all of the changes. I simply don't have enough time to spend my entire life, relearning Windows. Give me my one version and I will update it if I want, simple as that.

and yes, I could map drives, blah, blah, blah. But all windows systems, had where you join a session or not. it was easy. And I could set up machines to be part of different groups. Why remove this portion? never mind, Windows 10 is a fail IMHO. doesn't matter.