Problem sharing files and Network Credentials error

Hello, I'm a new forum member and I could use some help solving some win 10 problems regarding sharing files and a persistent Network credentials expired password and incorrect password errors.

I have a new Acer Nitro-5 laptop with a i5, 8 gb, GeForce GTX 1650 using wireless to a router. The laptop has Win 10 Home version 2004, OS Build 19041.508, upgraded from 1905 I think when brand new. I also have an older PC with an early i3, running Win 10 Home, version 2004, upgraded from an earlier version. The PC is connected to the wireless router with an ethernet cable. I log into both laptop and old PC using a pin number attached to my Microsoft account email @live.com.

So, I have a new, 2 weeks old Acer Nitro-5. I spent the first few days running updates and getting familiar with the laptop. I then spent too many days trying to get the laptop to be able to see my PC and access folders and files on the old PC. I researched and tried many suggestions on youtube and other web forums trying to set up sharing...I've changed many settings now and I honestly don't know where to begin to find all the changes and undo them...At some point I was successful in sharing the folders and files. I somehow created a Z: drive. I'm not sure what it is or how it works but it did work. So I started accessing the files and doing work. Everything was good until several days ago. I started the morning with the laptop working on files from the PC. When I woke the laptop up that morning, there was a message saying a restart was needed to finish installing updates. I ignored this restart initially and worked on my files. When I was finished working, I restarted the laptop and left it.


When I woke the laptop up later that afternoon and attempted to access the PC files I was met with a Enter Network Credentials password box. It listed my microsoft account email @live.com and the password box and a message under the password stating that "the password of this user has expired". I thought the error message was weird because I log into both the laptop and my PC with my microsoft account and the password worked if I logged out of windows and then logged back in. So I typed in my microsoft password and received the error message "The user name or password is incorrect". I tried every password I could find and I even changed my @live.com password to a new one and nothing worked. I can find no option or screen or opportunity to update my network credentials with a new password. I would assume that the updates I did changed a setting somewhere. That's the only guess I can take seeing that it worked in the morning and quit working after the restart to complete updates. Either that or the update created a bug that's not fixable without a patch from microsoft.

So I now have a new laptop that I cannot get into my PC to access my folders and files I want and a network credentials error I cannot get past.

I assume the red X thru my Z: drive in file explorer is related to the network credentials problem I'm experiencing. The other weird thing is....if I go to my PC and look for my laptop name under networks in file explorer, it's there. I can see my laptop and the folders. So why can i go from the PC to the laptop? But I can't go from the laptop to the PC?

I have made so many changes, tics on and off in so many windows under so many windows processes that I don't know how I would go about undoing them. I'm sure many things I changed probably didn't need to be changed. I would appreciate any suggestions, steps I could take to just fix the Network Credentials error and leave my mess of file sharing system changes alone. Or if someone could help me to just reset everything back to the windows default network settings and the file sharing default settings and then show me the correct changes to make to my laptop to access my PC through the home network and share folders on the PC.

thanks for any help you may have, I attached 3 screenshots of the error boxes I receive.
Chieftain

Hello dalchina, thank you for responding with your suggestions and links. I've been kinda sidelined by life here recently and haven't had the time to devote to my laptop issues. But I have been reading your links and the related threads and trying to formulate a path to follow. My thoughts are to put my effort into solving the "Network Credentials Expired" error, in hopes that if I'm successful, I'll reestablish contact with the shared folders on my PC. If I can do that, I'll live with all the mess I created changing a bunch of settings I probably didn't need to change. If I'm not successful, I'll probable just reset the laptop back to factory settings by re-installing windows. It's only 3 weeks old and I've only installed a couple programs which I can easily reinstall. With the laptop back to default settings, I'll follow the tutorials for networking, file sharing and hopefully I can turn off the network credentials setting so this won't happen again.
Thank you again for your time and help, I'll post again when I get a final outcome.
Chieftain

- - - Updated - - -

Hello dalchina, thank you again for your help. I have fixed my "network credentials password error". It was actually a pretty easy fix. I followed one of your links and read about windows credentials manager issues. I started looking and saw some things that didn't look quite right. So I deleted all of the credentials listed in the credential manager in my laptop and my PC and listed my laptop IP address and name, password on my PC and my PC IP address and name, password on my laptop and it worked. I'll continue to read up on the networking and sharing tutorials and might go in and check if I should change any other settings. But for now it has been successful. thanks again