Network Computers are not Showing Up in Windows 10

Readers asked me several times to help solve the problem of displaying computers in a network environment on the
latest Windows 10 builds. Indeed, in the latest releases Windows 10 not showing up neighboring computers in the
workgroup. Let’s see how to fix LAN Network Discovery in Windows 10 1709 and 1803.

Contents:

Windows 10 can’t see other network computers in Workgroup

SMB 1.0 and problems with Master Browser in Windows 10

Computers not Showing Up in Network on Windows 10 after upgrade to 1803 Spring Update

Windows 10 can’t see other network computers in Workgroup

Users began to face the problems related to not showing network computers in the workgroup starting from
Windows 10 1703 (Creators Update). After installing this build when enumerating devices in a network environment,
the Win10 computer stops seeing the neighboring computers.

You can see the list of computers in the networked environment in the Explorer or with the command:

net view

If the list is empty or the command returned an error (System error 6118 has occurred. The list of servers for this
workgroup is not currently available), first check the following settings.

Go to the section Control Panel\ All Control Panel Items\ Network and Sharing Center\ Advanced
sharing settings. Make sure that in the current network profile section the following options checked:

Turn on network discovery

Turn on file and printer sharing

Allow Windows to manage homegroup connections (recommended)

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Then, in the All networks profile, activate the options:

Turn on sharing so anyone with network access can read and write files in the Public folders

Turn off password protection sharing (If you trust all the devices in your network)

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Then go to Settings -> Network and Internet -> Ethernet (if you are connected to a local network through a
wireless connection, select Wi-Fi). Click the network icon and verify that the Make this PC discoverable option is
enabled.

In some cases, to enable network discovery, you must run the following command in the command prompt with
administrator privileges:

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

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In some cases, Windows computer may not be displayed in the network environment due to incorrect settings of the
workgroup. Try to re-add this computer to the workgroup. Go to the Control Panel -> System and Security ->
System -> Change Settings -> Network ID.

In the Join Domain or Workgroup Wizard that opens, select: This computer is part of a business network -> My
company uses a network without a domain -> enter your workgroup name. After that, you need to restart the
computer.

If after rebooting the computer appeared in a network environment, but you can’t access it, check the network type
on your computer. Most likely your local network was recognized as Public. You need to change the network type to
Private. To do this, open Settings -> Network and Internet -> Status -> Homegroup.

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Click Change network location, then in the dialog with the text “Do you want to allow your PC to be discoverable
by other PCs and devices on this network? We recommend allowing this on your home and work network, but not
public ones” Select Yes.

Open the Network and verify that you are now seeing the neighboring computers.

If these tips did not help, and the computers in the workgroup are still not displayed, try to reset the network
settings (Settings -> Network and Internet -> Status -> Network Reset).

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

netsh int ip reset reset.txt

netsh winsock reset

netsh advfirewall reset

Then you need to reboot the computer.

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

Function Discovery Provider Host

Function Discovery Resource Publication (see below)

DNS Client

SSDP Discovery

UPnP Device Host

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SMB 1.0 and problems with Master Browser in Windows 10
It happens that problems with displaying computers in a networked environment are associated with the service
Computer Browser. This service is responsible for building and maintaining a list of active computers on the
network. In the local network there can be only one active computer with the role of the Master Browser.

You can identify current Master Browser in your network using the following command for each PC in your network:

nbtstat -a ComputerName

The computer that is the Master Browser is the only one that has the value __MSBROWSE__.

In Windows 10 1703, the Computer Browser service works incorrectly. It is recommended that you completely
disable this service on Windows 10 and use the computer with Windows 7 / Windows 8/ Windows server 2008 R2/
2012 R2 (through the registry) as the main Master browser on your the network.

To disable Computer Browser browse to the registry key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM

\CurrentControlSet\Services\Browser\Parameters and change the value of MaintainServerList to False.
To force set which computer is the Master Browser change the value of MaintainServerList to Yes.

In addition, in Windows 10 1709 and higher, the SMB v1.0 protocol is disabled by default, thus disabling the
Computer Browser service, which is responsible for compiling the list of computers on the network and displaying
them. If you have only computers with Win 10 1709 and higher on the network (see the table SMB versions), in
order to solve the problem, you must enable SMB v1.0 on at least one computer, which will use as Master Browser
on your network. You can install SMB 1.0 by adding 3 Windows features in the Control Panel.

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Computers not Showing Up in Network on Windows 10 after upgrade to
1803 Spring Update
In Windows 10 1803 (Spring Creators Update), developers have removed the ability to create a HomeGroup, in
addition, computers with Windows 10 are no longer displayed in the network environment of the Explorer when
viewing network devices.

The point is that from a Microsoft perspective, homegroups are an outdated (legacy) functional of organizing a local
network to access shared folders and printers. Instead of using a HomeGroup, Microsoft suggests using its cloud
services (OneDrive, access through Microsoft Account accounts).

In Windows 10 1803, in order to access the resources of another computer over the local network, you need to
know its name ( \\pcname1 ) or ip address ( \\192.168.1.100 ), but neighboring computers in a network are not
showed. However, this can be fixed.

The fact is that for the discovery of computers on the network in Windows 10 there is a separate service Function
Discovery Resource Publication, which after the installation of 1803 doesn’t start by default (start type changed
from Automatic to Disabled). If this service is stopped, the computer does not detect other computers on the
network. You can enable the network auto-discovery in Windows 10 1803 as follows.

1. Open the Windows Services Management Console (services.msc).

2. In the list of services, look for the Function Discovery Resource Publication service. It must be

disabled.

3. Change the service startup type from Manual to Automatic (Delayed Start).

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 4. Restart your computer.

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