Network Discovery – Make Network Discovery Work for Windows 10 Clients

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When we open File Explorer on Windows 10 clients on a Windows domain and click on Network, no computers show up. Network Sharing is turned on and the Function Discovery, SSdP Function, and UpNP device host services are running. The computers are accessible if we type \computer\ in the address bar.

How do we make Windows 10 display other network computers in in File Explorer/Networks? Windows 7 computers show up but not Windows 2012, Windows 2016 servers or other Windows 10 computers show up.

Best Answer

This is because the Networking node relies on SMB1, and SMB1 is deprecated on Windows 10.

If you still want to see the computers in the "Network" node, you can try to follow these instructions, in "More Information" -> "Explorer Network Browsing" : https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4034314/smbv1-is-not-installed-by-default-in-windows

However, if you still have to use the Explorer Network in home and small business workgroup environments to locate Windows-based computers, you can follow these steps on your Windows-based computers that no longer use SMBv1:

Start the "Function Discovery Provider Host" and "Function Discovery Resource Publication" services, and then set them to Automatic (Delayed Start). When you open Explorer Network, enable network discovery when you are prompted.

All Windows devices within that subnet that have these settings will now appear in Network for browsing. This uses the WS-DISCOVERY protocol. Contact your other vendors and manufacturers if their devices still don't appear in this browse list after the Windows devices appear. It is possible they have this protocol disabled or that they support only SMBv1.

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