Windows 10 1511 Network Browsing Issue

You should realize that on a network with more than one Windows system, you always need an active browser to be able to see other PC's in Windows Explorer. This is regardless of whether you have a server or not. If you have a server, it is likely also acting as master browser. If you have not, one of the "normal" PC's will act as master browser.

This is why you can see the problem at hand, also when you do not have a server. But a normal router/switch/wireless will generally not act as browser server, so one of your PC's will do the job. Depending on the Windows version, it will use one or more SMB versions. If you have a Windows XP system and it happens to be the master browser, you will not see this problem on your Windows 10 system!

Regards,

Bart

This will fix the SMB issue until MS patches the problem - open a administrator command prompt and type the following hitting enter after each line.

sc.exe config lanmanworkstation depend= bowser/mrxsmb10/nsi
sc.exe config mrxsmb20 start= disabled

then Restart the computer

To reverse this change and re-enable SMBv3 run the following commands at at the elevated command prompt

sc.exe config lanmanworkstation depend= bowser/mrxsmb10/mrxsmb20/nsi
sc.exe config mrxsmb20 start= auto

then Restart the computer

Excellent! Thank you.

Bart

If I understand things correctly, there is no need to do this on any Windows version except Windows 10 build 10565 or later.

Other versions will cooperate nicely without these incantations.

Bart

Sage said:

This will fix the SMB issue until MS patches the problem - open a administrator command prompt and type the following hitting enter after each line.
sc.exe config lanmanworkstation depend= bowser/mrxsmb10/nsi
sc.exe config mrxsmb20 start= disabled

I did this on the 2 vista PCs, the Windows 10 PC, and the Windows 8.0 PC. It fixed the problem of Windows 10 not listing the Windows 8 PC. Now, even though it's listed, it's shares are not accessible. What's worse is that before I could at least see the shares of the Windows 10 PC from the Windows 8 PC, but now the "no shares" problem exists on both PCs. Both Windows 10 and Windows 8 have no problem seeing and being seen by the 2 vista machines, including the shares. The problem is the shares are not visible on 8 from 10 or on 10 from 8.

When I run the diagnostics on each PC, 8 can find no problem, while 10 says that some network protocols are missing on "this" PC, yet they all have identical configurations (6 of 7 boxes checked).

Sage said:

This will fix the SMB issue until MS patches the problem - open a administrator command prompt and type the following hitting enter after each line.sc.exe config lanmanworkstation depend= bowser/mrxsmb10/nsisc.exe config mrxsmb20 start= disabledthen Restart the computerTo reverse this change and re-enable SMBv3 run the following commands at at the elevated command promptsc.exe config lanmanworkstation depend= bowser/mrxsmb10/mrxsmb20/nsisc.exe config mrxsmb20 start= autothen Restart the computer

Thanks SAGE. I had been searching for a solution to this for ages. Have 3 x Windows 10 machines all build 1511 (10586.36) and whilst i could access my WD MY CLOUD drives manually via \\share\ , I had lost visibility of them in Windows Explorer. Your solution has restored visibility on all 3 machines. THANK YOU!

Rob

Ronc said:

I'm replying to my own post with some new info I found about the "smb1 vs smb2" issue: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/2696547 . That KB article tells us how to use powershell to check the state of the smb server in Windows and also how to change it. What I found was that the two PCs that I thought I had switched to smb1 using sc.exe, were still running both 1 and 2. So I followed the instructions to disable smb2 using powershell, re-ran the powershell "get" command, so now it states that smb1=true and smb2=false. The only problem is that I still have the same networking behavior: Windows 8 and 10 can't see each other's shares, while they have no problem seeing the 2 vista PCs's shares and having their own shares be seen by the vista PCs.

Tou have to use the client commands, it's the client that is broken, not the server;
sc.exe config lanmanworkstation depend= bowser/mrxsmb10/nsi
sc.exe config mrxsmb20 start= disabled

in an elevated command prompt

DoItJust said:

You have to use the client commands, it's the client that is broken, not the server;
sc.exe config lanmanworkstation depend= bowser/mrxsmb10/nsi
sc.exe config mrxsmb20 start= disabled in an elevated command prompt

My mistake, you're correct. According to the link I posted, Microsoft did make a distinction between servers and clients. Of course, now that the network lists are complete for the Win8, Win10, and Vista PCs seen in File Explorer, I still wonder what I should do to get Winsows 8 and 10 to see each other's shares. The shares on these two PCs have no problem seeing and being seen by the Vista PCs. It's just that 8 and 10 can't share anything with each other.