Can't change network type in Windows 8

Question

How do I change a network to be private so that file sharing is allowed? I thought you could click on it from the pop out network pane on the right side of the screen, but only my physical network connection is listed there.

More details:

I have one physical Ethernet connection which is set as a private network. File sharing and other communication on my LAN works fine. I also have a virtual connection through LogMeIn Hamachi which is set as a public network. I can not find any way to change this. The way to change the network type in Windows 7 does not work in Windows 8.

I was once able to change the Ethernet network type from public to private by selecting that I wanted to enable sharing. Though I am now unable to get to the menu to change this from the pop out pane when single clicking on the network icon. I was also able to do this once with the Hamachi network, but only the physical adapter network seemed to save the change after a while. At one point the Hamachi network was displaying as unidentified, but has switched back to showing as a public network. That was hopefully just temporary, and may be another problem alltogether.

I do not want to make an exception in my firewall, or make registry changes that specify all unidentified networks are set as private (two suggestions I have found around the web so far).

Answer 1

So it took me a while to find this also, I fixed it by searching for troubleshooting as suggested above. Then in the troubleshooting search box (top right) type homegroup, then select the homegroup troubleshooter, even if you are not using homegroup, part of the diagnostic allows you to change the network type from public to private/home, I skipped the network diagnostic step also and it allowed me to change the network type quite easily.

Answer 2

I am running Windows 10 and this is how I resolved this issue.

I had Task Manager running so I used Run New Task to run secpol.msc.  I'm sure you could do this from any command line, PowerShell or Win-R.

Once open, I went to the Network List Manager Policies.

I was able to select the network I wanted to change from Public to Private, and change the Properties, on the Network Location Tab.

In addition to that I selected the All Networks (All networks that a user connects to.)

I changed the settings in the User Permissions in each of these three sections to:

Network NameUser can change ...

Network Location

User can change ...

Network Icon

User can change ...

Each had three options:  Not configured, User can change..., User cannot change ...

Answer 3

Hi Kevin,

I understnad that you are having issue with File sharing within the network. I will be happy to help you with this issue.

Method 1: Follow the steps to run the Network troubleshooter:

a.     Press Windows key + C on your keyboard to show the Charms bar.

b.    Type Troubleshooting and click Troubleshooting under Settings.

c.     Now type Network Troubleshooter in the search option.

d.    Click on Network troubleshooter to run the troubleshooter.

Method 2: I would suggest you to update the network adapter drivers and check if that helps.

Also, refer the links:

**http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-8/turn-sharing-on-or-off**

**http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-8/share-files-folders**

**http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-8/privacy-on-public-networks#1TC=t1**

I hope it helps. If you have any issues in future please let us know. We will be happy to help you.

Answer 4

Thanks for this fix suggestion.  Worked perfectly for me.

Answer 5

Thanks for the articles. The first article illustrates what I am trying to do, but it is not working.

Here's the problem: when I bring up the network list (as per the first article you sent me) right clicking does not bring up a menu as it once did. I have followed the instructions in the article on the Windows 8 release preview that I still had kicking around on a spare hard drive and it works there, but not on my current machine.

Secondly, the Hamachi network does not show up in the network connections pane. Therefore even if the right clicking did work, and brought up a menu for me to change the sharing options it wouldn't do me any good.

My problem is not specifically file sharing. If I turn off the Windows firewall, and allow file sharing on public networks then it works fine through the Hamachi VPN. The thing is that I don't want to do that. It would kind of defeat the purpose of the whole public/private network thing.