windows 10 can't see windows 7...

Hi, have you worked through everything in Option 1 here:
Share Files and Folders Over a Network in Windows 10

- from the huge searchable Tutorials section - do feel free to have a look.

Setting up networking is tedious and can be problematic, alas.

It takes time for a pc to appear on the network but you should be able to connect via IP using \\192.168.1.1\sharename

I use shortcuts for my network computers. I got tired of seeing computers only intermittently in File Explorer > Network. I only make a shortcut to the network computer name. After I click on that I can browse to any share. Note this only works if there is no problem with networking. You know this by successfully pinging each computer. Note this has always worked for all my computers which have a mixture of Windows XP, 7, 10 & 11.

On the desktop I create a folder called My Network



That folder contains the shortcuts to all my network computers.
Note you only need to do this one time. When complete you can copy the My Network folder to the desktops of all your other computers.

With SMB settings thus:


- there's no delay.

If you fully enable SMB1 (for older than Win 7 PCs) then the master browser is in use, and there can be a 20-30 min delay.

You do not need to and should not do that - so there should be no significant delay.

dtvonly said:

Even though pinging was successful from windows 10 (to see windows 7 laptop), windows 10 laptop does not list/see windows 7 laptop in its network list. Therefore windows 10 can not access any shared files/folders from windows 7 laptop.

I agree with the others.
- Your network is OK.
- The Windows 10 File explorer's Network section is chronically unreliable.

Create shortcuts on each computer to each other using this syntax in their Target fields
\\COMPUTER\
\\COMPUTER1\SHAREDFOLDER1
and use these rather than the Windows 10 File explorer's Network section.


All the best,
Denis

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