Win10 PC must be booted before Win7 otherwise network drives missing?

hi all, I have a Windows 10 PC and its connected via network to a Win7 PC. Both x64

They share drives. I have the problem where the Win7 PC can see the Win10 drives at all times, but not the other way around.

Believe me when i say that ive been thru EVERYTHING on this forum about this topic. Ive been thru the firewall settings. Ive set the services recommended list to "auto", ive done the registry settings thing. Ive spent 4 hours every nite for 2 weeks researching this and trying out things.

What drove me completely nuts was that *sometimes* I could see drives in both directions...but other days it was only one way (always Win7 to Win10 worked ok). I thought my changes that I was trying were sticking...until a reboot, and then the next day when the pc's were turned on...network drives not available.

So ive finally figured out that if i turn on the Win7 PC first, and then the Win10 PC second, i can see network drives of the other in both directions. If i get the order wrong, and the Win 10 PC is turned on first, i cant access the Win7's network drives. Its infuriating. It makes no sense.

So if i get the order wrong, the Win10 PC can see the Win7's network name. But if you try to see a network drive it just goes into thinking mode for what seems like forever, hanging, and then returns with a "cant access network drive". If you try to Map a Network drive it says the same thing, but then allows you to run Windows Network diagnostics and throws this explanation:



As i mentioned...a reboot of win10 so that it is second to boot fixes the problem. So win10 is not seeing new PCs properly that appear on the network unless they are present at bootup? wtf. Please help! any suggestions appreciated. This is a wierd one.

Thanks in advance
Blackout

It makes perfect sense when you look for network resources on Windows it doest actually actually look it contacts the master browser for a list and uses that so it's clear that 10 is the master and when that's up it all works ok

hi Samuria, thank you for responding i appreciate it.

I dont understand "master"....if theres 5 windows PCs on the network, they all must be turned on first before the hysterical all special all knowing mr His Majesty Windows 10 PC can be turned on? what makes it so special? and how to i demote it so it is not so special then?

one other thing. If i want to make the two pcs see each others network drives, i cant just restart the Win7. it seems i need to actually SHUT IT DOWN/ Power off.. and then restart it. Then i need to restart Win10 PC (but it doesnt need to be shut down first) ...then both PCs see each other.

This is soooo doing my head in.

IF i just do a restart of win7 PC and then restart Win10 PC, still no network share from Win10 to Win7. It seems the Win7 PC needs a complete shutdown to work. Starting to make me think its a hardware thing. They run thru a Netgear network switch 8x, i pulled them and plugged them into a Netgear 5x switch that i know is working ok, same prob. Used a lead tester...both leads ok.

why would a win7 restart not work but a Win7 SHUTDOWN and restart work?

Hey Blackout,
There is a know issue with win10 (1703) network discovery/master browser, so until MS fixes the issue there is not a lot we can do. However, there are a couple of workarounds and you already know about the fist one :)

Since you have a Win7 PC:
1. Make sure the Win7 PC is started first, so it becomes the master browser ... then start the Win10 PCs.
2. If you have a router that supports file sharing via a USB port and you have a USB flash drive. Set up the file sharing on the USB flash drive thru your routers admin. Shut down ALL PCs (you may need to reboot router). This should effectively make your router the Master Browser and the order you turn on your PC's won't/shouldn't matter.

FYI ...
The first PC started becomes the Master Browser, when no other PCs are on the network. As PC's join and leave the network the PCs left on the network try to become the Master Browser. There is a registry key that tells it to MaintainSeverList and in Win10 it's set to Auto. Since there is an issue with Win10 network discovery/master browser things break.

You can try setting the MaintainServerList to No, in the following key ... I doubt it will make any difference.
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Browser\Parameters

hey Eagle51...thanks so much for responding!

im kinda blown away, this must be affecting millions of people? how long as this been a "known issue"? because for me it started around 1-2months ago. I can only assume it happened during one of the secret uncontrollable Win10 updates that sneak in by themselves.

I understand the Master Browser thing now...but what i dont understand is why this should affect whether you can see the drives of that PC on the network?? I dont care who is the Master Browser. But surely just because a PC becomes the Master Browser it shouldnt make a difference to its drive sharing on a network? In this case its making a BIG difference, its blocking them from being shared.

why cant a PC that is the Master Browser share its drives on the network?

(ill try the reg hack and get back to you)

ok Eagle51 ive found the massive thread of ppl with the same prob:

Anyone else notice the network issues with Windows 10 Creators edition?

fyi reg hack didnt work. Port 445 exception in Firewall didnt work. I dont have a USB port on my router. I noticed they are all suggestions in the long thread (you are across this i can see!).

Anyways many thanks for your response and giving me the lead to this Creators update 1703 prob. seems im another victim of the "Computer Browser" service bug indeed. Just gotta sit it out and wait for M$ to get off their ass and fix this. They really need to get their s#*t together if they are going to be forcing updates onto us and introducing major networking flaws like this...unacceptable. Somewhere, some junior kid ex M$ programmer who just got fired in the last round of redundancies is sitting at home playing with his skateboard laughing into his pizza slice with a big middle -finger extended at the chaos hes created as the door hit him on the way out

As everyone here already knows it's confirmed that the issue is the master browser/computer browser glitch in Windows 10 version 1703

Another workaround in case you don't have a second machine with W7 is to put a USB drive into your router (in case your router has that option). I have a Netgear router, which has USB ports and can SMB share these drives automatically. So once you plugged in your drive, it's shared (may need to set up some things in the router page settings, depending on yours), and then you need to turn off all your Win10 machine(s). Now restart one by one If everything works as expected the Hard Drive attached to the router will become now the Master and you will be able to see all your shared computers again and any device can access every device in it. Why? Because the Linux-based operating system on your router takes over as MASTER BROWSER and creates the WORKGROUP instead of the buggy Win10CU.

You can use this "Lanscan" tool, to tell you which device on your network is the current master browser Scottie's Lanscan

After doing this I'm able to see my entire network and shared computers and since my router stays on 24/7 will stay MASTER until I have to reboot the router. Remember that if you ever need to reboot the router you will have to turn off the computers as well and turn on the router first.

Last but not least remember that this is a workaround. This doesn't mean the problem is solved, we still need a real solution from Microsoft.

The MB its self isnt a fault its been around for years and the highest o/s normally is MB so a server or the latest version. If that isnt presant then an election should be held and another should take over.
The problem is the timing to be MB you use netwbios and send out a message to all pcs on the subnet to register But the timing can be 20 mins so unless you keep a pc off for over 20 mins there is no election

thanks Samuria and johnny.

The highest O/S is normally MB. Will the O/S with the lowest ip address also default as the MB?

ie 192.168.1.1 is higher in the list than 192.168.1.7?

ive tried setting Win10 MaintainServerList registry setting to "No" and the Win7 to "Yes" but it didnt seem to make one iota of a difference (sadly)....i thought i mighta had the solution there