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[RoderickGI]

This will not be a thorough description, but hopefully points users in the right direction if they have lost the ability to Browse their Local Area Network or what used to be known as Network Neighbourhood. If you know what you are doing, just do what the Blue writing says. Otherwise, read the detail.

Background:
In a recent update to Windows 10, taking it to Version 1709, OS Build 16299.248, Microsoft disabled the SMBv1 (also known as Samba Version 1) feature. The Network Neighbourhood functionality relied on SMBv1 to work, so it stopped working. You could no longer browse your local network to find other PCs and Shares you had set up on those PCs. Very annoying. Microsoft failed to tell anyone how to get the browsing functionality back. Even more annoying. The internet is littered with questions, answers (many of them wrong), and lots of frustration as a result.

Using SMBv1 is bad, as it is full of security holes. So turning it off was a good idea. Not turning on the Services that provide equivalent functionality using the more secure SMBv2 and SMBv3, or more correctly the WS-DISCOVERY protocol, was not a good idea. Shame on you Microsoft.

Solution:
The fix to return Network Browsing capability is actually pretty easy. It doesn't need SMBv1, so don't turn that on as suggested by some.

First, open the Service App and change the "Function Discovery Provider Host" and "Function Discovery Resource Publication" services to a Startup Type of Automatic (Delayed Start). This was eventually documented with even more words than I usually use on this page: https://support.microsoft.com/en-au/help/4034314/smbv1-is-not-installed-windows-10-and-windows-server-version-1709

Second, make sure that the network that you want to browse is a Private Network. This can be a little tricky, particularly if you are using a non-Administrator UserID in Windows 10, as I was on my HTPC. My network had been set to "Public" because I was using a VPN, which makes sense, and changing it back to "Private" once I closed the VPN was quite a challenge. Microsoft in their infinite wisdom have removed the setting from the obvious places, to protect you from making a mistake, no doubt. But there are many posts on the internet on how to do this. If you need more information I recommend only using suggestions from Microsoft sites, or the www.tenforums.com. This is a good thread, but very long: https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/6815-set-network-location-private-public-windows-10-a.html

On my Workstation with Administrator privileges this was as easy as going to;
Start - Settings - Network & Internet - Ethernet - click your Adapter - another screen will pop up - change the Network Profile to "Private". But that option wasn't available on my HTPC.

My easy solution was to open the "Network and Sharing Center" in the Windows Control Panel and click on the "HomeGroup" link at the bottom left. See the Red arrow in the first image. Windows then asked if I wanted to change my network from Public to Private. Or more correctly asked if I wanted the network to be discoverable. See the second image. Note that you do not need to create a HomeGroup, and unless you really want one, or know what you are doing, I recommend that you don't. Microsoft is going to remove HomeGroups soon anyway, and I found the HomeGroup functionality to be rubbish.
Note: HomeGroup was removed from Windows 10 update (Version 1803). Use the first method above.

Do not edit the Registry or change Windows Policies to fix this issue unless you really know what you are doing. You may find there are some unexpected consequences, like your network doesn't change to Public when it needs to.

Third, turn on "Network Discovery" with "Automatic setup of network connected devices" for your Private LAN. This is done in the "Advanced sharing settings" of "Network and Sharing Center" in the Windows Control Panel. See Green arrow in the first image below.

There are a lot of discussions on the internet regarding how to get to and make these changes, but just set up your network connection as per the third image below.


That's it. You should now be able to browse your local area network again. I hope this helps.





Tags: Network Neighbourhood, Network Neighborhood, Windows 10 1709, Network Browsing, Network Shares, Network Discovery

[jachin99]

That is actually really cool, and I'm going to share this with a few other people.  Thanks.

[RoderickGI]

You're welcome.

By all means, share it around. There are so many deeply technical and incomplete answers on the internet, I thought a simple one was needed.

[Don W]

Hey thanks! Works like a charm. I get why Microsoft disabled SMBv1. But it's not possible to understand why they didn't and still haven't implemented a way for people to browse their network. Just doesn't make sense.

One thing, my NAS (a Synology Diskstation) still doesn't show up in Explorer. Do you have any tricks up your sleeve for that?

[RoderickGI]

One thing, my NAS (a Synology Diskstation) still doesn't show up in Explorer. Do you have any tricks up your sleeve for that?

You will have to take that question to Synology I'm afraid.

It could be that they will have a firmware update to enable the new browsing technology, or there might be settings that you can change to enable browsing again. Or they or your model NAS may only support SMBv1, in which case you would need to turn that back o in Windows 10. That can be done, it just isn't advisable for security reasons.

[felix2]

Thanks Roderick. I have configured 2 of my Win10 Pro PCs identically to try out your method, as follow:

1. Network is private
2. Services>"Function Discovery Provider Host" and "Function Discovery Resource Publication" set to Auto Delay Start
3. Windows Features>SMB 1.0/CIFS, SMB Direct turned OFF
4. Network & Sharing>Advanced sharing>"Network Discovery", "Automatic setup of network connected devices" turned ON

Result, under Network neighborhood icon:
- see itself and see folders
- see a QNAP NAS and see its folders
- see the other PC but when try to open folder this error box:
   Windows cannot access \\[pc name]
   Error code: 0x80070035, the network path not found

Sharable drives/folders as per before under HomeGroup - no change.

[RoderickGI]

You might just need to reboot both PCs.

Network discovery can still be a bit slow, and I think it caches the information it discovers, so it can show unusual results after changes. A reboot should clear that up.

[Manfred]

Do you have Mediastreaming enabled under public?

[marko]

A wee bit frustrated with this...

Shares from the server MC machine show up and are successfully mapped on the HTPC, but for the life of me, I cannot get shares on the HTPC to show up on the server machine.

HTPC shows up in the network browser, but when I try to drill into it, it always returns a "Network path not found" error. Any ideas of anything simple I'm missing here?

I'm getting round it using copy/paste and RDP, but that's a pain compared to having the locations mapped on the server machine.

-marko.

[JimH]

A recent Win10 update removed support for SMB 1.  RoderickGI talks about it in the first post.  But I suppose you've read that post.