Change Workgroup in Windows 10  

Snugglebugs said:

Over the years I have changed PCs and OSs many times but always set them up to use a Workgroup which I renamed to suit myself before doing anything else! I don't remember what was necessary in Win 95 but whatever it was, it (eventually) worked. Changing the OS to 98, XP, 7, 8.1 always accepted the configuration and I could set the sharing permissions on files and folders without problem. It even worked on the first Win 10 installation. On the PC I was using at that time it still works.

BUT (there has to be a but!) on my new PC with Win 10 installed from scratch, sometimes sharing works and sometimes it doesn't. Certain folders on certain PCs in the workgroup will share and some won't. Sometines it works from A to B, and sometimes not from B to A!

Is there a procedure I should go through on every PC in the workgroup so that the whole sharing thing works for any file/folder I choose to share and from any PC to any other in all the combinations possibel?

Tony

Hello Tony,

You might double check the items in option 1 of the tutorial below on all computers on the network you want to share between to see if it may help.

Share Files and Folders Over a Network in Windows 10

Snugglebugs said:

Thanks for the tip. I have gone though all the steps in Option 1 and changed them where they were not already set to those settings. I have done that on two Win 10 PCs and one Win 7 PC. Respectively Lenovo2019(10Pro), Acer 2020(10Home) and Acer 2008(7Pro).Results so far not conclusive and that may be because of a vagueness in the tutorial!
For 10Home without SMB Direct I now have only the last two SMB boxes checked. For 10Pro, should all three boxes be checked.as well as the Direct box below them? For 7Pro those boxes don't exist. Is there something else?

Tony

It sounds like you will need to enable SMB1 on all computers so they will see each other.

Enable or Disable SMB1 File Sharing Protocol in Windows

Brink said:

It sounds like you will need to enable SMB1 on all computers so they will see each other.

Enable or Disable SMB1 File Sharing Protocol in Windows

Cor !

Tomorrow perhaps!!!

Tony

Win 10 is supposed to be easy to use! But look at the hundreds of Tutorials each of which has at least one Yes/No option and the permutations are astronomical
How about "Do you want to share information over a network - tick for yes or don't for no" - what else is needed?

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Brink said:

It sounds like you will need to enable SMB1 on all computers so they will see each other.

Enable or Disable SMB1 File Sharing Protocol in Windows

Of course that needs Powershell on Win 7 which I don't have! So I found how to get that and it wouldn't install until I got two more installs. They are taking AGES to install so I will report back when, hopefully, I can run Powershell to then d eal with SMB1

Why can't life be simpler?

Tony

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This is so silly Having done all the configuring Brink et al suggested, I still couldn't access some of the other PCs on the Workgroup. I have four so the possible see shared files is twelve. Eight of those possible links worked but not the other four. Those ones kept asking for Network Credentials on a little form that looks as if it belongs on 95/98 OSs.

As I don't remember ever set such credentials and they can't be found anywhere I seemed to be stuck.
Then I tried something that is plain silly!
Instead of User Name, I typed my email address. THEN the login password on the requesting PC gave me access to the one that was hiding!

Now I will have to try that on the other three failures.

Tony

Snugglebugs said:

This is so silly Having done all the configuring Brink et al suggested, I still couldn't access some of the other PCs on the Workgroup. I have four so the possible see shared files is twelve. Eight of those possible links worked but not the other four. Those ones kept asking for Network Credentials on a little form that looks as if it belongs on 95/98 OSs.

As I don't remember ever set such credentials and they can't be found anywhere I seemed to be stuck.
Then I tried something that is plain silly!
Instead of User Name, I typed my email address. THEN the login password on the requesting PC gave me access to the one that was hiding!

Now I will have to try that on the other three failures.

Tony

Agreed. It so much simpler using the HomeGroup feature until it was removed.

This is one reason why I use a NAS on the home network (connected to router via ethernet) to share files on between all my devices connected (wired or wireless) to the same home network.

Snugglebugs said:

PS I have been trying to find out if I can make Network Credentials visible as the system is convinced I have some! Any ideas?

It normally would be the same account credentials as the user/owner of the share/network computer you are trying to open.