Why do I need to enable insecure guest logon and can I avoid it

Hi,

I have a home network with 3 computers. 2 of them run win 10 home (laptop and HTPC) and the other one runs win 10 pro (desktop). the HTPC computer is sharing a couple folders with the everyone user group. On the laptop I can access these files with no issues, the desktop however can not access them. It throws the error ´You can´t access this shared folder because your organizations security policies block unauthenticated guest access....´. That is until I enable insecure guest logons in the group policy editor on the desktop. After this I can access with no issues.

I only encounted this issue yesterday when I reset my win 10 pro desktop, using the settings ´reset this pc´ option. before this there was no need to enable the insecure guest logon to access the shared folders on the HTPC.

So, my question is why did this start happening? and why does it need me to enable this option on my win 10 pro desktop but not the win 10 home laptop?

Also, this does not sound like a good fix security wise, is there a way to get my desktop to access the shared folders without needing to enable this option? It seems like for some strange reason the HTPC (laptop too) is being seen as a guest user or something, when this is not the case. my desktop (and the other computers as well) is setup with a local admin user account.

Thanks,

Hi Ken, thanks for the reply. I did maintain the same login name as prior to the reset.

I'm not 100% sure what you mean by

Assuming you log into the HTPC is the login name you are now using on the W10 Pro present on the HTPC.

but here goes. Did you want me to access the shared folders with Win10 Pro machine, check computer management > System Tools > Shared Folders > Sessions? If so, it shows my desktop and lists the user as guest, same goes for the laptop when it is accessing the shared folders.

The Win10 Pro is connected to my router via wired ethernet. The HTPC and Laptop are connected via the wifi. The network on each computer is set to Private within their settings. On Win10 Pro machine Windows defender is showing the firewall 'Private network' as active.

Thanks for the link, I saw that last night and made sure that the shares were set correctly using it.

I understand now.

I have made it so it does not ask for username or password details, when I access the HTPC from my desktop (or laptop). I have done this by turning off the password protected sharing in advanced sharing options > all networks.

I'm guessing this is the problem. I'll change it back to password protected sharing, and bite the bullet on just entering the login details each time I access another computer.

Thanks Ken, I have now made sure that the password is stored in the credential manager. Thanks for all your help.