Share Files and Folders Over a Network in Windows 10  

Draconian said:

Hi Brink, both Windows 10 home 64 on both smb enabled on both. Ive followed each step in option one, the only progress i've made is accessing it via IP.

I must admit that I'm not sure why the shared folder is able to show with IP but not name.

As a workaround, you could map the shared folder by IP to make it easy to access in "This PC".

Map Network Drive in Windows 10

Personally, I like to use a NAS drive connected to the router to make it easy to share items with devices.

Great tutorial. It covered all the issues I've had in the past with sharing on my home network - and I think I've had them all! At a moment in time a few days ago all the systems were sharing correctly. It is a pain in the neck to keep all the Windows 10 systems working since every time Microsoft does a cum update some of the systems require the old "Network Reset" and then verify that the "Function Discovery..." services are set to Automatic and Running. But...I've got that down to a routine.

Now I've got a new problem. I have been switching CPU's and MB's on a couple of systems and ended up making the mistake of having two systems with the same Computer Name. I have changed the name of the "new" system (ASRock Taichi X470/3900X) but it refuses to be recognized on the network. It sees all the other W10 systems and can share with them but the other systems do not see it. All of the computers on the home network are running Windows 10 Pro 1909 with all the latest updates using a wired GB Ethernet configuration.

Something strange went happened - onetime - when I set the "Function Discovery Provider Host" to Automatic and Started (it was not running) the system showed as on the network and then disappeared again! So...I suspect something got screwed up in W10 when I had the two systems on the network with the same name?

Before I give up and reinstall a fresh copy of W10 is there something else I can do to "Clear" the network settings in the problem system and maybe get it working correctly without a refresh. Everything else seems to work as advertised on the problem system.

Yes, I can share stuff by routing everything thru my network server (I've got the server drives mapped on all the computers on the network) but it is kind of a pain when dealing with huge files.

Help appreciated.

More info:
Original system name 3800X, new system named 3800X in error. Changed the new system to 3900X. Now if I boot the 3900X when the 3800X is turned off the 3900X sharing works on the network work as expected. As soon as I boot the 3800X the 3900X system goes away on the network and the 3800X system works as expected. When I shut the 3800X system off the 3900X system is not seen on the network until I reboot the 3900X with the 3800X system shut down. At least now I understand why the 3900X system kept disappearing mysteriously.

So...somewhere convoluted in Windows the 3900X system still thinks it's the 3800X system when both systems are on the network??

Hello @Ken429,

If you haven't already, you might see if starting over fresh with the shares may allow them to be seen afterwards. This will be a way of resetting them.

Ken429 said:

Been there, done that. Don't seem to work. I looked in the registry and there are hundreds of references to the old 3800X computer name. It's no wonder Windows is getting confused! I'm giving up and starting with a fresh copy of Windows. I think this one has been around too long and has a lot of baggage.

Please let us know how it went.

JCW2 said:

Hey, Brink -- Thanks for the great tutorial. But now I have two people giving me apparently contradictory information. Could you please take a look at

Sharing on "Public" Network in Windows 10 Pro?

and reply there? I'm afraid I posted my question about this tutorial in the wrong place, but I don't want to repeat it here. -- JCW2

It's just much easier to share on a private network vs public.