Windows 10 and Windows 11 file sharing issues.

Question

I have a home network consisting of the following:

1. Windows 10 PC on a wired connection to my ISP router (Actiontec T3200M).
2. Windows 10 laptop on wifi on the Actiontec.
3. New Windows 11 PC currently running on wifi.
   4 Amazon Firestick (runs Android) running on wifi.
   5 Various tablets and phones, all Android and running on wifi.

PC #1 is my main PC and is the main media server for my home network. I have set up numerous shared folders requiring no passwords for Everyone on my network. We can see all of these shares from every Android system on my network, in particular from the Amazon Firestick. But I can also see all of these shares from all of our tablets and phones.

However, I have a devil of a job trying to see these shares from my other Windows PCs (nos 2 and 3). This should be easy since this is simple Windows networking (that's what all the books and everything else says). I have tried all the items mentioned in instructions for setting up Windows networking - same workgroup, network discovery on etc.

And sometimes I have even managed to get the thing to work i.e. I have been able to see the #1 PC shares from the other Windows PCs. In fact this was working OK until I had to restart the #1 PC. Then the other PCs could no longer see the shares, but all of the Android devices could see them.

Currently the situation seems to change regularly without me doing anything (at least nothing that I am aware of. For instance earlier on the new PC Windows Explorer showed the #1 PC in the network section, but when I double click it it says it cannot find it. The windows Network Troubleshooter is useless - when you run it it says that I should contact my network administrator (which is me) and gives me no useful information to work with. And when I run Windows Explorer now on the new PC nothing shows up under Network.

On every PC in my network I categorize my home network as Private.

If anyone can help me resolve this issue I would be eternally grateful. I'm 77, a retired network support supervisor, and would like to solve this one in my lifetime.

***moved from Windows / Windows 11 / Files, folders, and storage***

Answer 1

Hello，

We understand that you are currently experiencing a problem that Windows network sharing fails after restarting. This problem may be caused by some settings being restored, and you need to manually set it again;

You can try the following steps to see if they resolve your issue:

"Win+R" to open Run, type: regedit to open the Registry Editor,

Locate: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\SharedAccess

Right-click the mouse in the blank space and create a new "DWORD (32-bit) value (D)",

The name is called "EnableRebootPersistConnection" and change the numerical data to 1.

Best regards

Zunhui