Question I have never set up a Windows network successfully

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David_652

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Mar 14, 2017
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I have tried it so many times over the years. The furthest I got was to get two PCs to see each other and work together over a home network. But even then, the network did not persist. If I shutdown or rebooted either or both PCs, they couldn't see or connect to each other anymore.

Things are worse now. I have a Windows 10 and 11 PC connected to the router connected to my internet device. I can get them to see each other. But I can't open the Windows 11 PC from Windows 10 at all. I can't open a shared folder on the Windows 10 PC from the Windows 11 PC at all.

I believe the only things unique to my setup are using hard configurator and using GPEdit to stop Windows updates and to keep the Windows 10 PC at a version prior to AI.exe showing up on the scene. Don't assume these are issues though. They may not be.

Is there a good comprehensive resource for Windows networking to ensure success? Are there tools that automate a lot of this so I can avoid issues?

I have tried instructions that take me through the process, including enabling network discovery and file sharing, etc., opening Windows Defender for file sharing, and having the same WORKGROUP. I set up folder sharing, created the same user accounts in both PCs; the original Microsoft accounts on both were the same already. I put .bat files in the startup folders to reset the network on bootup to enable persistence.

I #$%@&*! around with it for four hours today and didn't solve these issues. Can't find the network path. You don't have permission to access that resource. Blah, blah, blah. Is there a set of instructions that covers everything and sets it up right the first time?

Windows 11 is 23H2. Windows 10 is 22H2. I have reset everything back to normal. I'm not trying it again this weekend. But I would love to have some resources that would enable it to just work.
 
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David_652 said:
I have tried it so many times over the years. The furthest I got was to get two PCs to see each other and work together over a home network. But even then, the network did not persist. If I shutdown or rebooted either or both PCs, they couldn't see or connect to each other anymore.

Things are worse now. I have a Windows 10 and 11 PC connected to the router connected to my internet device. I can get them to see each other. But I can't open the Windows 11 PC from Windows 10 at all. I can't open a shared folder on the Windows 10 PC from the Windows 11 PC at all.

I believe the only things unique to my setup are using hard configurator and using GPEdit to stop Windows updates and to keep the Windows 10 PC at a version prior to AI.exe showing up on the scene. Don't assume these are issues though. They may not be.

Is there a good comprehensive resource for Windows networking to ensure success? Are there tools that automate a lot of this so I can avoid issues?

I have tried instructions that take me through the process, including enabling network discovery and file sharing, etc., opening Windows Defender for file sharing, and having the same WORKGROUP. I set up folder sharing, created the same user accounts in both PCs; the original Microsoft accounts on both were the same already. I put .bat files in the startup folders to reset the network on bootup to enable persistence.

I #$%@&*! around with it for four hours today and didn't solve these issues. Can't find the network path. You don't have permission to access that resource. Blah, blah, blah. Is there a set of instructions that covers everything and sets it up right the first time?

Windows 11 is 23H2. Windows 10 is 22H2. I have reset everything back to normal. I'm not trying it again this weekend. But I would love to have some resources that would enable it to just work.
Click to expand...
I have my 2 computers setup where I create a desktop shortcut that opens windows explorer and accesses the other computer's C: drive. The shortcut looks like this for my other computer named TV:

C:\Windows\explorer.exe \\TV\c\

There has to be a space after the explorer.exe command. You can add a folder name after the drive letter. The only thing I noticed is that it helps if you enter the computer name all in capital letters.
 
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This:

"I can't open a shared folder on the Windows 10 PC from the Windows 11 PC at all."

What error messages are being presented when attempts to share folders fail?

Take some screenshots and post those screenshots here via imgur (www.imgur.com).

= = = =

And this:

"I have a Windows 10 and 11 PC connected to the router connected to my internet device."

What is that "internet device"? Could be a modem or modem/router.

Update your post to include make and model information for modem and router.

Or modem/router if combined.
 
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David_652 said:
What did you do to get them set up before you got to adding that shortcut?
Click to expand...
Just the normal settings for network discovery and Advanced Network Sharing, and for the drives Advanced sharing (the entire drive, not just individual folders) with full Permissions for Everyone. Network is set to Private. Please explain what you mean when you say you used "hard configurator". Also I've never found it necessary to use GPEdit to stop any version of Windows updates, and I wouldn't worry about the whole AI thing, its harmless if you don't want to use it. Not sure what you mean by opening Windows Defender for file sharing, I've never heard of such a thing. I think you may have overthought your whole setup process for these PCs to create these conditions where networking won't work.
 
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dwd999 said:
Just the normal settings for network discovery and Advanced Network Sharing, and for the drives Advanced sharing (the entire drive, not just individual folders) with full Permissions for Everyone. Network is set to Private. Please explain what you mean when you say you used "hard configurator". Also I've never found it necessary to use GPEdit to stop any version of Windows updates, and I wouldn't worry about the whole AI thing, its harmless if you don't want to use it. Not sure what you mean by opening Windows Defender for file sharing, I've never heard of such a thing. I think you may have overthought your whole setup process for these PCs to create these conditions where networking won't work.
Click to expand...
I use Hard Configurator to harden Windows installations. I thought perhaps it was blocking something. It appears that was not the case. AI.exe and its companions use too many resources for one of my PCs. I used GPEdit to set the Windows version, and it does not accept updates to newer versions, including the version where AI.exe first appeared. I had read that Windows Defender Firewall could be blocking file sharing, which also provided inaccurate. I did several things to get full access from one PC to the other. The last thing I changed before it started to work better was the Ethernet adapter settings. You have to check a box for file sharing there. It was not checked.
 
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Ralston18 said:
This:

"I can't open a shared folder on the Windows 10 PC from the Windows 11 PC at all."

What error messages are being presented when attempts to share folders fail?

Take some screenshots and post those screenshots here via imgur (www.imgur.com).

= = = =

And this:

"I have a Windows 10 and 11 PC connected to the router connected to my internet device."

What is that "internet device"? Could be a modem or modem/router.

Update your post to include make and model information for modem and router.

Or modem/router if combined.
Click to expand...
I just saw this post.
 
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lantis3 said:
Make sure you turn on File and Printer Sharing and you are using Private Network profile.

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=private+network+profile

Sometime you are not able to change from Public to Private network profile
you can try this NetEdit uyility
https://github.com/Walkman100/NetEdit
Click to expand...
Thank you. Yes, I did eventually have to set the network to private. There were several settings I had to change. Just one or two settings don't open it all up and make it work. Now I'm on to network persistence. I have researched that and now I intend to validate each recommendation one at a time to see what makes sense, what helps.
 
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