Windows 10, Version 1809. Network does not show computers

Question

In Win10, v 1809 I go to "Network" in file explorer and no computers are showing - neither my computer nor other computers on the network.

I was able to find the ip address of the computer I was searching for and successfully ping it via command prompt.

Any ideas?

Answer 1

I am having this problem also. My computers are connected via Ethernet. No wireless adapters.

@norinrad, 

What windows Build level and what Ethernet adapters ?

Did you try to apply the workaround that restarts FdResPub in task scheduler as described earlier in this Thread ?

Answer 2

Running the test batchfile in an elevated CMD prompt on an offending computer to show up in the network then it disappears 20 to 30 minutes later.

Router has been powered off and recently upgraded. This issue has been ongoing since SMB 1.0 was deprecated due to security issues and as someone else indicated activating Remote Access is also a security issue which had gapping holes that MS patched recently

I've been using the workaround to restart FDResPub for 3 years from v 1809 and up now v 20H2 and also insider builds 20251.1 , no SMB of any type is running, sharing and discovery enabled on private network,  it works fine on my 6 computers.

If the network drops it could be when the computers go to sleep and comes back,  a second condition has been added in the task scheduler for that situation.

Here are the settings I use on the machines that are exhibiting the problem. 

Edit:

Note that to avoid the Credential Manager problem that clears the credentials after a reboot you should use a user password to start the task, leave "Do not store password" option unchecked and enter the password when asked.

This new problem about Credential Manager clearing credentials on reboot showed up recently with latest Cumulative updates of windows 2004 and 20H2. 

(I got the Credential issue with build 19042.685 and I unchecked "Do not store password" option to avoid the problem)

Answer 3

Hi Garth,

I think you misunderstood my intention in posting this. I'm not suggesting there is a problem with the router.

The problem we are all dealing with is the failure of recent versions of Windows 10 to see other computers on a network for the purposes of file sharing. My experiment demonstrated that a brief loss of network connectivity even though quickly restored may cause some computers on the network to no longer see others that they should be seeing. Running the task to re-start Function Discovery Resource Publication will fix it, but this only happens automatically at bootup, and if connectivity is lost for whatever reason it shouldn't be necessary to reboot all systems to restore it.

Answer 4

In Win10, v 1809 I go to "Network" in file explorer and no computers are showing - neither my computer nor other computers on the network.

I was able to find the ip address of the computer I was searching for and successfully ping it via command prompt.

Any ideas?

Is the network set for private ? Are all the computers in the same Work Group ?

Make sure you turn on  network discovery on the advance sharing setting.

Answer 5

Hi fg2001,

Thanks for this information. I have the exact same setup you describe and it acts the same way. A restart of the FDResPub service gets it working properly. I came up with a workaround to restart the service automatically at system startup. You may have already done this, but others may benefit.

1. Create a command script named FDResPub.cmd with these two lines:

cmd /c net stop FDResPub

cmd /c net start FDResPub

2. Save the script at a convenient location. I used C:\Scripts\FDResPub.cmd.
3. Use Task Scheduler to create a new task:

Name: FDResPub

Description: Restart the FDResPub service.

Run whether user is logged on or not.

Run with highest privileges.

Configure for: Windows 10

Triggers: At Startup

Actions: Start a program   C:\Scripts\FDResPub.cmd

Optional start at: C:\Scripts

This has worked for both restarts and shutdowns with Fast Start disabled.

Hi Plarini, 

Thanks for the workaround, I tried it on my MSI GT70-0NC and it worked every time, but when I tried on the DELL XPS 8700 it only worked intermittently after a PC restart.

So I changed the task

Triggers: At Logon        At logon of any user  

That seems to work fine after every PC restart.

The workaround is fine, but I hope the guys at Microsoft fix this specific issue affecting the machines with both Ethernet and Wi-Fi adapters.

It appears that if the services Function Discovery Resource Publication is started too early it creates the problem for the machines connected through the Ethernet. 

I don't have this issue on the same machines if I use Win 10 1803, but the bug is solid with 1809.