Can't see other computers in Workgroup on Windows 10 computer

had an issue myself seeing other computers on network with various devices. had a read and i think i've fixed it. simply by renaming computers with capital letters. thank you very much microsoft for stuffing up a perfectly good network.

I have been fighting this problem for days.

I finally used regedit on the only XP box we have in our network, and made it the Master Browser permanently. Now, everything works as it should.

Every computer sees every other computer, and all the peripherals too.

Trouble is, I have to build a new Win 10 Pro box to replace that old XP machine, and I will have to begin this battle all over again.

I really wish MS would find and fix this problem.

Before doing the above, I tried every solution posted here and NONE worked.

I didn't see these workarounds in the particular thread, so I thought I would add them.

Until MS fixes the Win10(1703) Network Discovery / Master Browser issue, these workarounds should work.

1. You should still be able to access the shares using \\COMPUTERNAME\SHARENAME or \\192.168.X.Y\SHARENAME ... So you can map your network shares. Map Network Drive in Windows 10 Windows 10 Network Sharing Tutorials

2. If your router has a USB port and supports File Sharing (you have a USB Stick or USB HDD). Connect the USB Stick or USB HDD to your router and check your routers admin to make sure USB / File Sharing is enabled. This should make your router the Master Browser. Shut Down ALL PCs, then start each one.
Note: You may need to reboot router, before starting PCs.

3. If you have a pre 1703 PC (xp,7,8,10-1607) on your network. Shut down ALL PCs, start the pre 1703 first, then start the other PCs. This should make the pre 1703 PC the Master Browser.

Eagle51 said:

I didn't see these workarounds in the particular thread, so I thought I would add them.

Until MS fixes the Win10(1703) Network Discovery / Master Browser issue, these workarounds should work.

1. You should still be able to access the shares using \\COMPUTERNAME\SHARENAME or \\192.168.X.Y\SHARENAME ... So you can map your network shares. Map Network Drive in Windows 10 Windows 10 Network Sharing Tutorials

Yes. That works, but is a big PITA.

Eagle51 said:

2. If your router has a USB port and supports File Sharing (you have a USB Stick or USB HDD). Connect the USB Stick or USB HDD to your router and check your routers admin to make sure USB / File Sharing is enabled. This should make your router the Master Browser. Shut Down ALL PCs, then start each one.
Note: You may need to reboot router, before starting PCs.

My router (Trendnet TEW-812DR*) does have that feature, which I enabled, but have not yet connected a USB stick to it. I'll do that about the time I get the new WIn 10 box finished. Thanks for the confirmation on that. I had read something about that amongst the huge number of web pages I have visited over the past several days.

Eagle51 said:

3. If you have a pre 1703 PC (xp,7,8,10-1607) on your network. Shut down ALL PCs, start the pre 1703 first, then start the other PCs. This should make the pre 1703 PC the Master Browser.

We don't have. Which is why I have made the XP box the Master Browser permanently for now. I am NOT pleased....as I am sure many of the others of us aren't.

Again, thanks for the very suscinct and compact information. Much appreciated.

Did the Creator update on one of my PC's. After the update the Public folder was not seen by the other two PC's w/o the update. All the settings in Network and Sharing were correct. The Homegroup worked with the other two PC's so I tried joining with the updated PC, but it wouldn't let me join.

I then went to double check the Sharing settings again and this time the Public folder sharing was turned off. Turned it back on and the Public folder was now being seen by the other two Pc's.

WOW, problem salved on my brand new Dell laptop. It is completely illogical, and it almost like someone in Microsoft created this bug on purpose.
.

My 2 cents. After perusing 290+ threads, I gave up. Then thought lets try the capitalization trick, and it kinda worked, Map network drive - Folder: \\COMPUTERNAME\Users\Name and I was connected to my wife's computer. Browse... still does not see her computer, AND when I shut down Windows Explorer the drive goes away. It's still better than going into her studio with a thumb drive to get what I want, it's easy enough to re-map it.

OK right clicking on "This PC" gives you the option of "add a network location" (why is this not available under Networks???) this does allow you to connect with your network computers. Sometimes when accessed this way the network computer will even show up under "Network" but not by directly accessing the "Network" however it will soon disappear. Come on Microsoft this is clearly a fault with Windows 10 a few months back I had a healthy network then some upgrade/downgrade has screwed it up. Fortunately my old XP Computers are able to access my nice shiny Win10 laptop with out any problems.
I have had several issues following upgrades with Win10 but usually wait for a few weeks for the next one to sort it, not this time.

mdrolle said:

Let me take a step back. When this problem first occurred on one of my systems, I also lost my mapped drives (which are shares on other servers on my lan) (all of them are members of my domain, and this would be the same if you were using a workgroup). This was very problematic because I have several business apps using the mapped drives.
I remapped in the standard fashion, right click, then "map network drive", select the drive letter I want to use and such, but it seemed to have some big delays when accessing.
I then went back to the mapped drive and selected "disconnect", rebooted to be sure there would be no oddities, then went back to my network share, right clicked, and selected "map network drive" again.

If you absolutely cannot access your network drives in any fashion, I would suggest first checking to be sure whatever network type you are on has file and printer sharing enabled. If you r system comes back up as public network it will be disabled (however, it should pop up a yellow band at the top of explorer telling you that it isn't enabled if it indeed is not), then I would suggest checking out your firewall; turn it off if you have to just as a test, turn back on once you narrow down the problem.
In my earlier comment I should have said "re-map the drives you want mapped".

As I was typing this response, something popped in my mind, so I checked it out, and it appears to have resolved this issue for me. I will need to do some further checking because it doesn't make total sense, but...

If you want to check it out, open SERVICES on EACH PC or server on your workgroup or domain, scroll to "Function Discovery Resource Publication", and start it. Then check to see if all your pc's show up in explorer. There is also a "Function discovery Provider Host" that may play into it. There are a few other settings that may play into other device discovery that I'll have to look into. All my devices actually show up though.
If this works for you, change the start up for the service to automatic and it should stay on. I don't know the ramifications of changing this setting so Ill be monitoring to see if there are any obvious ones.

My guess is that some change that was implemented in the latest insider builds has affected network discovery. I know that my servers all had this ("Function Discovery Resource Publication") turned off for as long as they've been in service, which is a matter of years, and it always worked, so it isn't the other pc's, it's the Win10 boxes.

This solved my problem. Signing on with PIN still enables these servers to be s hown.