Windows 10 does not see network computers. Reasons why the computer does not see computers on the network

Why do you need to set up a home network? It would seem that a laptop, a computer and a couple of smartphones are working at home and are periodically used to access the Internet. What else is needed? But remember how often you have to transfer files from one device to another? You have to copy it to a flash drive and back or use Bluetooth.

Even if you do this no more than once a month, with a home local network everything will become much easier. In addition, its customization will open up a lot of new opportunities. For example, files can not be transferred, but can be launched directly on another computer or even a TV (if it has the ability to work on a local network with Windows 10). It will be possible to run games “on a grid”, print documents from any computer on one printer, and use many other features.

Basic Concepts

A home local network is several computers connected by one network cable for data exchange. Today, most apartments have routers that distribute Wi-Fi. Thanks to them, setting up a local network has become a simple task.

An approximate diagram of a home local network with Windows 10 might look like this:

As you can see in the figure above, the Internet is supplied via an Ethernet wire to the router, to which the PC is connected via a patch cord (the same wire with double-sided connectors). Laptops and smartphone are connected to the router via Wi-Fi. Of course, such a connection does not create a local network by default. Specific settings are required on each device. In the above example, the various machines and gadgets, if they are not configured properly, will not be able to “see” each other.

The most important term in this whole process is the so-called groups. A Windows 10 workgroup can include a maximum of 20 machines, which are nodes of the same level, that is, they cannot control each other. In other words, in such a network all computers are equal - there is no main server.

In addition, there is the concept of a home group, which can be formed if computers already belong to a work group. HomeGroup makes it easy to share photos, music, movies, and documents from other devices. This group, unlike a working group, has a password, but you only need to enter it once to add a new device.

Creating a local space step by step

Working group

First of all, make sure that all computers have the same workgroup name. It can be anything - you set it at your discretion. On Windows 10:

• Open Start and go to Utilities.
• Launch the classic Control Panel.
• Open “System and Security”.

• Go to the “System” section.
• On the left, select “Advanced system settings.”

• A small window will open in which you need to select “Computer name” and click on the “Change” button.

• In the new window at the bottom there will be an item “The computer is a member of...”: select “workgroup” and enter the desired name.

This setup must be done on all computers with Windows 10 (for 7 and 8 everything is done in the same way) that will be on the home network.

Visibility of computers on the network

The fact that computers with Windows 10 or other versions of the OS are part of the same group is not enough for them to start “seeing” each other. Additional configuration required. To enable visibility, follow these steps on each machine:

• Open Control Panel.
• Select “Network and Internet” and go to the Network and Sharing Center.

• Open “Change advanced settings...”.
• Turn on file and printer sharing and network discovery.

• You need to do this in all profiles, and also enable the “sharing” option so that network users can read and write files in shared folders.
• Place the checkbox next to “Disable password protected access.”
• Save.

Sharing folders

Setting up a Windows 10 network ends with sharing specific folders. To do this, just open the folder properties (with the right mouse button - as always), then select the Access tab and go to Advanced settings. Check the box next to “Share” and click on the “Permissions” button.

Where for full access you just need to check the boxes next to “Full Access”, “Change”, “Read” in the “Allow” column. But you can leave some boxes unchecked and thereby limit the capabilities of local network users.

Next to the “Access” tab there is “Security”. Here click the “Change” button, and in the new window that opens “Add”. In the empty box, enter the word “Everyone”, as shown in the photo:

Now the “Everyone” group has appeared in the previous window. Select it and in the “Allow” column, check all the boxes for full access. Save all changes and reboot. The setup is complete.

conclusions

After these manipulations, your Windows 10 should see the computers in its group and gain access to all open folders. This is how to briefly set up a local network using Microsoft operating systems. In reality, everything may look different: the article provides only general principles.

For example, without a router (with a DHCP server enabled and automatic distribution of addresses), two computers can be connected by a patchcord. In this case, after the first stage of setup, you will need to register IP addresses manually. This is done in the properties of the network adapter and the properties of Internet Protocol version 4. It's the same for Windows 10, 8, 7 and even XP.

An IP of the form 192.168.0.* is registered (for each computer the last digit is unique, except for 0 and 1. You can use, for example, 5 and 7, Subnet mask 255.255.255.0 and default gateway 192.168.0.1. 192.168 is indicated as DNS servers. 0.1 and 192.168.0.0 (optional) If the router has DHCP disabled, a similar setting must also be done.

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There are many ways to exchange data between PCs, but not all of them are equally convenient or effective. It is also important in which network such exchange takes place, global or local. If the network is local, using cloud services will be less rational than combining computers into one workgroup, in which data can be transferred without any intermediaries.

Technically, organizing on a local network is not particularly difficult, but the same cannot be said about fixing one of the most common problems when the computer does not see other computers on the Windows 7/10 network. The problem can be caused by various reasons, but most often its source is incorrect network settings and disabled services. So, what often prevents computers from seeing each other on a local network?

It’s easy to view the list of PCs available on the network; just expand “Network” in the Explorer navigation bar or run the command net view.

If the computers are connected and the command returns "no items in the list", check the following settings one by one.

Network discovery

Open with command control /name Microsoft.NetworkAndSharingCenter"Network and Sharing Center", go to advanced settings and make sure that the network type of the network profile you are using is "Private". Next, make sure your profile settings enable network discovery, file and printer access, and allow Windows to manage homegroup connections.

Now go to the “All networks” profile and enable (if disabled) general access for network users, and, on the contrary, disable password protection.

Return to Network Sharing Center, click “Change adapter settings”, go to the properties of your adapter and check if the “File and Printer Sharing...” checkbox is checked. The checkbox for IP version 6 (TCP/IPv6) must also be checked.

In Windows 10, you can access all of these settings from the Network & Internet section of the Settings app. Please note that the “Make this computer discoverable” option in your connection properties must also be active.

Working group

The reason that computers do not see each other on the Windows 7/10 local network may be incorrect workgroup settings. Open system properties, on the “Computer name” tab, click “Identification”, and when the wizard starts, select these settings in sequence:

• The computer is part of a corporate network;
• My organization uses a domain-free network;
• The workgroup name is WORKGROUP.

After this, you need to restart your computer and once again make sure that the network type is set to “Private”. The name WORKGROUP is the default, do not change it if possible. All computers on the network must use the same (same) workgroup name, and this is a very important point.

Network Browser Service

In Windows 10 1703 and higher, problems with the network environment may be associated with the Network Browser service being disabled or running. Check to see if SMB 1.0 CIFS is active in your Windows Components section. If yes, try disabling it, which will deactivate Network Explorer.

If the Browser is disabled (as it should be in recent versions of Windows 10), try turning it on, then reboot and check that it detects computers on the network correctly.

Other network services

You encounter network discovery problems in Windows 10 1803 more often than in other versions of the system. This is due to the limitation of the functionality of workgroups, which Microsoft considers an obsolete component. In this version, a number of services responsible for detecting other computers on the local network may be disabled. If computers are not visible in your Windows 10 Network Neighborhood, you need to make sure that the following services are enabled:

• Publish feature discovery resources (type "Automatic");
• SSDP detection;
• Computer Browser (see SMB 1.0 above);

After enabling these services on all computers, reboot. If other settings are correct, your PC should detect other resources on the local network.

Reset

If Windows 7/10 still does not see computers on the network, it might be worth resetting the network settings to default values. To do this, open a command line or PowerShell console as an administrator and run the following commands:

• netsh int ipv4 reset My.log;
• netsh int ipv6 reset My.log;
• netsh winsock reset.

To reset the settings, you will need to restart the computer, which Windows will notify you about. But even this measure does not guarantee correct network discovery. There are other reasons why a computer may not be visible on the network, in particular, incorrect driver operation (rarely), as well as connection blocking by a third-party firewall and antivirus.

Hello! For those who are not in the know, I’ll start from afar. On computers and laptops with Windows installed, there is a separate “Network” tab in Explorer. This tab displays devices from the network environment. That is, by opening the “Network” tab, we can see there computers, network storage (NAS), multimedia devices (DLNA), flash drives and external drives that are connected to the router and to which shared access is configured. Simply put, those devices that are connected through one router (located on the same network) and on which network discovery is enabled (devices that can be discovered on the local network). Our router may also be displayed there (section "Network infrastructure") and other devices.

Now I’ll explain what and how, and why I decided to write this article. I have an ASUS router, to which I connected a USB flash drive, and configured shared access to this flash drive for all devices on the network. And what do you think, this network drive appeared in the “Network” section on all computers (it is displayed there as "Computer"), but it didn’t show up on my computer. That is, my computer did not see the flash drive connected to the router, nor other computers on this network. But the DLNA server was displayed running on the same router. But this does not change anything, since I need regular network access to the drive.

Also, I could not access the flash drive when I typed its address //192.168.1.1 in Explorer. This address was immediately opened through a browser. And I was unable to connect this drive as a network drive. It simply was not in the list of available devices in the network environment.

Such a problem when Windows 7, Windows 8, or Windows 10 does not see network devices is not uncommon. It doesn't have to be a flash drive or an external HDD that you connected to your router, as in my case. Most often, shared access is configured between computers on a local network. And they face the same problem when computers are connected to the same network (to one router), the sharing settings are set correctly, but the "Network" tab is empty. Or only the router and your computer are displayed.

Since there can be many reasons and, accordingly, solutions, I’ll probably start with the simplest ones (which didn't help me) and at the end of this article I will share the solution that helped in my case. As a result, my laptop still saw all the devices on the network. Including a network storage device and another computer that is also connected to this network.

But this does not mean that you have the same case. Therefore, I advise you to check all the settings in order.

Checking sharing settings

We will consider two cases:

1. When computers do not see each other on the local network.
2. Sharing access to a network storage device. This can be a flash drive, or a hard drive that is connected to the router, or a separate drive (aka NAS).

First case

For computers to be able to see each other and appear in the Network section in Explorer, they must be connected through the same router. Or connected directly (cable or via Wi-Fi). Simply put, they must be on the same local network.

Next, on all computers (I don’t know how many of them you have there), it is advisable to assign the network status to “Home” (private). I wrote in the article how to do this in Windows 10. In Windows 7, just go to the Network and Sharing Center and change the status of the current connection there.

If after this the computer still does not detect other computers (or vice versa), then let's also check the sharing settings.

To do this, in the “Network and Sharing Center” window (if you don’t know how to open it in Windows 10, then see the article), click on the “Change advanced sharing settings” item.

And for the current profile we set the parameters as in the screenshot below.

Let's do it on all computers on the local network.

Articles on this topic:

As a rule, these tips solve all problems with detecting computers on a local network.

Second case

When you have problems accessing your network storage. As in my case. Windows 10 did not see the USB drive that was connected to the ASUS router. Now many routers have a USB port for connecting drives and other devices, so the topic is relevant.

You need to make sure that this drive is defined in the router settings and that sharing is enabled. It is clear that this is done differently on different routers. On ASUS routers, for example, it looks like this:

Related articles:

Do not confuse sharing settings with FTP settings. The FTP server settings on the router have nothing to do with this.

Well, if other devices see the network storage and have access to it, but on a particular computer there is no access to it, then the problem is not on the router’s side. Go through the settings of the “problem” PC using this article.

An antivirus or firewall may be blocking network devices

If your antivirus or firewall (firewall) that is installed on your computer doesn’t like something, then it can easily make it so that neither you can see other devices in the network environment, nor can anyone detect you.

True, after disabling the firewall built into my antivirus, the problem was not solved (which means the problem is most likely not there), but it still seems to me that in my case it could not have happened without the participation of the antivirus.

Therefore, try to completely stop the antivirus for a while, or at least disable the firewall built into it (firewall). In NOD 32 this is done like this:

To check this you need to do on all computers, which will participate in the local network.

It is quite possible that you have some other programs installed that can monitor the network and manage network connections.

If it turns out that the problem is in the antivirus, then you need to add your network to the exceptions. Prevent the firewall from blocking the network itself or network devices.

If you don’t have an antivirus, you can experiment with disabling/enabling the firewall built into Windows.

Working group

The workgroup must be the same on all devices. As a rule, this is true. But it is advisable to check. To do this, open the computer properties "System" and go to "Advanced system settings".

"Working Group" will be indicated there. To change it, you need to click on the "Change" button.

Once again: the workgroup name must be the same on all computers.

If you have a problem accessing your network storage (to flash drive via router), then in the sharing settings on the same ASUS router the work group is also indicated. You can look at the screenshot above in the article. It should be the same as on the computer.

Problem accessing a shared network folder via SMB1 in Windows 10 (my solution)

Let's return specifically to my problem. Everything I described above has been checked and rechecked 10 times already. I did it a couple of times, but Windows 10 never saw other computers on the network and, most importantly, the shared folder in the form of a flash drive connected to the router never appeared in Explorer. And on other devices on the network everything was detected without problems. Including my laptop.

I read somewhere that you can try opening a shared folder through the Run window. Pressed the Win + R key combination and entered the network folder address //192.168.1.1 (aka router address).

I did not gain access to the drive, but an interesting error appeared:

You cannot connect to the shared folder because it is not secure. This shared folder runs on the legacy SMB1 protocol, which is insecure and may expose your system to attack.

Your system needs to use SMB2 or later.

This is already interesting. At least something.

SMB (Server Message Block) is a network protocol that is responsible for sharing access to files, printers and other network devices.

I started looking. And it turns out that Windows 10 abandoned the SMB1 protocol. Because of safety. And the Samba software package installed on my router seems to work using the SMB1 protocol. That's why Windows 10 doesn't see it. But other computers that also run Windows 10 were also not displayed on the “Network” tab.

Since I couldn’t update the protocol for SMB2 in the router settings, I decided that I needed to somehow enable SMB1 support in Windows 10. And as it turned out, this can be done without any problems. As a result, after connecting the “SMB Client 1.0/CIFS” component, everything worked for me. The system saw shared folders on computers on the network and a network folder configured on the router itself.

How to enable SMB1 in Windows 10?

Through the search, find and open the old “Control Panel”.

Switch to Small Icons and open Programs and Features.

Open "Turn Windows features on or off". Find the item “Support for SMB 1.0/CIFS file sharing”. Open it and check the box next to "SMB Client 1.0/CIFS". Click Ok.

If your computer prompts you to restart, restart it. If there is no prompt window, reboot manually.

After the reboot, all available devices on your network should appear on the “Network” – “Computer” tab.

I will be glad if this article is useful to someone and helps solve the problem that has arisen. Don't forget to write in the comments about the results. Or ask the question, where would we be without them :)

Readers have contacted me several times asking me to help solve the problem with displaying computers in the network environment on the latest builds of Windows 10. Indeed, in the latest releases of Windows 10, your computer may no longer see neighboring computers in the workgroup of the local network, or it may disappear from the network environment itself . Let's look at how to fix this.

Windows 10 computers are not displayed in a workgroup network environment

Users began to encounter problems displaying neighboring computers on a workgroup local network starting with Windows 10 1703 (Creators Update). After installing this W10 build, when viewing devices in a networked environment, the computer stops seeing neighboring computers.

The list of computers in the network environment can be viewed in Explorer or with the command:

If the list is empty (the command returned There are no elements in the list), please check the following settings first.

Check if your file and folder access service is enabled. Go to section Control Panel -> Network and Sharing Center -> More sharing options.

Make sure that in your current network profile section Private (current profile) options included:

• Enable network discovery
• Enable access to files and printers
• Allow Windows to manage homegroup connections

Then to profiles All networks activate options:

• Enable sharing so network users can read and write files in shared folders
• Disable password protection (if you trust all devices on your network)

Then open the item Windows Settings -> Network and Internet -> Ethernet(if you are connected to the local network via a wireless connection, select Wi-Fi). Click on the network icon and check that the option is enabled Make this computer discoverable.

In some cases, to enable detection, you need to run the following command on a command line with administrator rights:

netsh advfirewall firewall set rule group="Network Discovery" new enable=Yes

In some cases, a Windows computer may not appear in the network environment due to incorrect workgroup settings. Try adding this computer to the workgroup again by rewriting the settings ( Control Panel -> System -> Advanced System Settings -> Computer name-> button Identification).

In the Join a Domain or Workgroup Wizard that opens, select the following: The computer is part of a corporate network -> My organization uses a network without domains -> the name of your workgroup. After this you need to restart your computer.

If after rebooting the computer appears in the network environment, but you cannot log into it, check the computer’s network type. Most likely your local network was recognized as Public. You need to change the network type to Private. To do this, open Options -> Network and Internet -> State -> Home group -> Changing your network location.

Click on the link Change network location, then in the sidebar with the request “Do you want to allow other computers and devices on this network to discover your PC? We recommend doing this on your home or work network rather than on a public network." Select Yes.

Open Network Neighborhood and check if computers appear.

If the above tips did not help and the computers in your workgroup are still not visible, try resetting your network settings (Settings -> Network and Internet -> Status -> Reset Network).

You can reset network settings and firewall rules with the following commands:

netsh int ip reset reset.txt
netsh winsock reset
netsh advfirewall reset

After which you need to restart your computer.

Also check if the following services are running (to display the network environment correctly, they must be in the automatic startup state):

• Function Discovery Provider Host
• Function Discovery Resource Publication (see below)
• DNS Client
• SSDP Discovery
• UPnP Device Host

SMB 1.0 and problems with Master Browser in Windows 10

It happens that problems with displaying computers in a network environment are associated with the Network Browser service. This service is responsible for building and maintaining a list of active computers on the network (). There can be only one active computer on the local network with the role of master browser.

In Windows 10 1703 service Network Browser it works incorrectly. It is recommended to completely disable this service on Windows 10 and use a Windows 7 computer as the main network browser (via the registry).

In addition, in Windows 10 1709 and higher by default, the Computer Browser service is also disabled, which, as we said, is responsible for compiling a list of computers on the network and displaying them. If you only have computers with Win 10 1709 and higher on your network (see table), to solve the problem you will have to enable the SMB v1.0 protocol on at least one computer (unsafe!), which will be your main network browser (Master Browser). Installing SMB 1.0 is done by adding 3 components in Control Panel.

The computer is not visible on the network after updating to Windows 10 1803

In Windows 10 1803 (Spring Creators Update) developers, in addition, computers with Windows 10 no longer appear in Network Neighborhood Explorer when viewing network devices.

The fact is that, from Microsoft’s point of view, workgroups are an outdated functionality for organizing a local network for access to shared resources and printers. Instead of using a workgroup, Microsoft suggests using its cloud services (OneDrive, access through Microsoft Accounts). In my opinion, this is unjustified.

However, in fact, in 1803, in order to access the resources of another computer on the local network, you need to know its name (\\pcname1) or IP address (in the format \\192.168.1.100), but neighboring computers are not displayed in the network environment. However, this can be fixed.

The fact is that a separate service is responsible for detecting computers on the network in Windows 10 Function Discovery Resource Publication, which after installing 1803 does not start by default (the startup type has been changed from Automatic to Disabled). If this service is stopped, the computer is not discoverable by other computers on the network. Here's how to enable the Autodiscover service in Windows 10 1803.

After the reboot, other computers on the local network will be able to detect this computer and its resources (printers and shared folders).

A local network allows you to establish a connection between several computers in the same room, establishing shared access to files. As a result of setting up a home network, users have the opportunity to work on the same document or play games together on different computers.

Local network capabilities

Setting up a Windows 10 network allows you to get a number of convenient features that will be useful for users who have several computers at their disposal.

• Sharing files from different computers. Fast data transfer regardless of volume.
• Share a printer, scanner, or other network device.
• Setting up online games and entertainment.

These are the main directions, each of which contains a number of possibilities. For example, fast data transfer allows you to back up important information so that if one machine stops working properly, the information you need can still be accessed from another computer.

To start using all these functions, you first need to properly configure the local network in Windows 10. You can connect machines that have the same versions installed, a PC and a laptop with different versions of Windows - between “seven” and “ten” there are no compatibility restrictions.

Network creation

The first step is to set the same workgroup name on all computers that you are going to connect to the network. On Windows 10 and other versions this is done the same way:

• Click Win+R to call the window " Execute».
• Enter " sysdm.cpl" to open system properties.

• The “” tab will immediately appear. Look at the name of the working group. To put the same name on other computers, click " Change" Use only Latin letters!

The setup then continues in " Network and Sharing Center", which is launched through the control panel or the connection icon in the notification area. Next you should move on to changing additional parameters.

On Windows 10 you can still get here through the “ VPN" on the " tab Network and Internet» in system parameters.

Here you need to enable network discovery with automatic configuration, file and device sharing, and allow the system to manage homegroup connections.

Attention: Enable network discovery and passwordless sharing is required for all profiles! You'll set up your home or work profile first, then your general profile and all networks.

This operation must be repeated on all computers. As a result, local network participants should have:

• One workgroup name is assigned.
• Network discovery enabled.

If the home network into which the computers are connected is built on the basis of a single router, then the above steps are sufficient for the normal operation of the local network. If the computers are connected directly using a crossover cable or the DHCP service, which independently distributes IP addresses to machines, is disabled on the router, then additional configuration must be done.

• Open " Network Sharing Center", then go to the " Change adapter settings».

• Select the network card in which the crossover cable is installed and open its properties.

• Check " Use the following IP" And " Use the following DNS" Fill in the lines with the values ​​shown in the screenshot.

On the second computer you need to add the following data:

The IP address will be different on different computers. If on the first machine you wrote 192.168.0.2, then the second address will be 192.168.0.3 and so on, depending on the number of network participants. The rest of the data remains unchanged.

Enable sharing

The local network has been created, but in order to use programs and files from one computer that are stored on another machine, you must also set up shared access for them. Setting up a Windows 10 network This essentially ends there. Let's create a shared folder with documents:

• Right-click on the folder and open properties.
• Go to the " Access", click on the button " Advanced setup».

• Check the box " Share" Click on the button " Permissions».

• Set permissions. If you want to be able to only open the directory from another computer and view its contents, then check the box “ Reading" in column " Allow" To provide full access, check the appropriate box. Save the configuration by clicking " OK».

Then you need to return to the folder properties and go to the “ Safety" Here you should click the button " Change».

The window “ Group Permissions" Under the field " Groups or users» click « Add».

Enter your name " All" (no quotes needed), click " OK».

Set the same permissions that you did earlier when setting up access.

After allowing sharing, it is recommended that you restart your computer to Windows 10 network setup completed correctly. The next time you turn it on, the “ Net", which will display the computers between which the connection has been established.

Inside the directory under the name of the other computer, you will find folders that are configured for sharing.

Inside the folder will be the same documents that are stored on another computer. If you have given full access to the settings, you can easily edit them from another machine.

Sharing Internet access

If a local network is built without a router, using a direct wired connection of computers, and one machine has Internet access, but the other does not, then this can be quickly corrected. The described actions are performed on the computer that has a connection to the global network.

• Click the connection icon in the notification area. Open " Control center" and proceed to change adapter settings.

• In the list of available connections, find the WAN connection. Open its properties, right-click.

• On the " Access» Allow other members of your home network to use this Internet connection.

Now from one computer the Internet will be distributed to other participants in the network. This will affect the speed, but when accessed from different devices through the router, the speed is also divided in proportion to the load, so this is a common practice for sharing the Internet.