Shared folders, network computers, flash drives, and drives are not displayed on the “Network” tab of Windows Explorer. Shared folders, network computers, flash drives, disks are not displayed on the “Network” tab of Windows Explorer Win 10 does not see computers on the network

Greetings, dear readers.

Some computer users encounter a problem when the disk drive does not see Windows 10 disks. If you observe similar “symptoms” on your device, you should not immediately run to the store for a new reading component. This disease can appear as a result of various reasons. There are many ways to “bring back to life” an element. In the following article I will tell you how to do this.

The first thing you need to start with is to determine the nature of the disease. Check if the problem occurs only when reading some disks or all. So, if it performs its functions selectively, the drive is most likely faulty. If the situation repeats with everyone, there is a software failure.

How to fix it at the software level?( )

What to do when your discs suddenly stop being readable? Remember what has been recently installed on the equipment. These could be games or programs. Often the problem is virtual managers, such as Alcohol 120, Daemon Tools and the like. In addition, such “symptoms” appear as a result of placing a data recording program – Nero – on a laptop or desktop computer.

To solve the problem, simply uninstall the previously installed software. If this doesn't help, use the System Restore tool. I have talked about this more than once before.

If the problem disappears, we try to install other versions of solutions that will not interfere with the operation of the drive. And in general, it is better to remove all unused software from the device. This has many positive aspects.

Driver( )

In addition, sometimes problems arise as a result of driver failure. The solution is the following:

If the DVD drive continues to refuse to perform its functions, we perform additional movements:

If this does not help, take a few more steps:

Opening the tree " IDE ATA…" We are looking for the controller to which the disk drive is connected. To do this, open each channel one by one and check “ Type».

We find the option “ Enable DMA" and mark it. If it was standing there, we remove it. We restart, and then return it back.

Hardware failure( )

Why might the drive not work at the hardware level? There are many options. The first thing to do is change the connection cable and power plug.
You can also use a special cleaning disc. It has micro brushes that will clean the laser head. But before that, make sure they are flexible.

Well, the worst option is, of course, the complete failure of the component we need. The solution is to buy a new one.

Recently, one small company asked me to look at why, after installing the Windows 10 Creators Update, they had a problem: In a simple network without domains and Active Directory, workgroup computers are not displayed. Before the update everything worked fine. What should I do? Users completely cursed the “ten”, swearing at its crookedness and dampness, backing it up with exclamations like “But on the Sermerka everything worked perfectly!” I don’t think so, but I didn’t argue, I simply figured it out and corrected the situation, which I’ll tell you in detail now.

Indeed, in the latest major update package, the Creators Update, the developers went a little too far with security, which led to some problems, which, however, are relatively easy to solve.

So, we open the network environment to display the workgroup computers - it’s empty. We start by checking whether we have file and folder sharing enabled and how it is configured. To do this, open the Windows 10 settings and go to the Network and Internet >> Status section and click on the “Sharing options” link:

The following window should open:

Here you need to check the “Enable network discovery”, “Enable access to files and printers” and “Allow Windows to manage homegroup connections” checkboxes for your local network. Save the changes.

Then you need to open the “All Networks” profile:

Here you need to check the “Enable sharing” checkbox.
At the bottom of the page, pay attention to enabling and disabling password protection. For ordinary home networks, as well as in small offices, password protection is usually disabled, although this is not entirely correct from a security point of view.

If after this you still do not see workgroup computers, then the network discovery option in Windows 10 may be turned off.
To check this, open the “Ethernet” section in the “Network and Internet” section (if you are working via a wireless network, then “Wi-Fi”) and click on the network icon:

This will open up the available options, including “Make this computer discoverable”:

Check that the switch is in the “On” position.

Note: After the April update of Windows 10, this item was removed from the Updates and “Security” >> “For Developers” section.

Sometimes a computer may not appear in the network environment due to problems with workgroup settings. In this case, it is recommended to add it there again. To do this, click on the computer icon on the desktop and select Properties from the menu. In the window that appears, click on the “Advanced system settings” link in the menu on the left:

Another window will appear in which you need to click on the “Identification” button on the “Computer Name” tab. A special wizard will launch. First, check the “Computer is part of the corporate network” checkbox:

Then you need to check the box “My organization uses a network without domains”:

Then enter the name of the workgroup (by default WORKGROUP) and click the “Next” button.

The wizard’s work is completed - click on the “Finish” button.

Now you need to restart the computer and check the operation of the network environment.

In my case, adding the computer to the group again helped, it appeared, but I couldn’t log into it. The error “Could not connect to the computer” occurred. As it turned out later, the network was recognized as public, which means access to the PC from it is limited. To solve the problem, you need to change it to a private one. It's done like this. Open the Windows 10 network settings and in the “Status” section click on the “Homegroup” link:

In the window that appears, click on the line “Change network location”:

After this, a sidebar will appear on the right with the following request:

Click on the “Yes” button. We check access to the computer from the workgroup.

The computer is not visible on the network after Windows update

After the Windows 10 April 2018 Update, problems with accessing computers over the network began to arise all the time. The reason turned out to be quite simple - Microsoft decided that workgroups were no longer needed and disabled this feature. To make the workstation visible again, do the following. Press the Windows key + R to open the Run window. Enter the command services.msc there and the operating system services management window will open:

Find the Function Discovery Resource Publication service. After the April update it is disabled by default. Double-click on the line to open the service parameters. Set the startup type to “Automatic” and launch it. Now you will see this PC in the network environment.

Disable the firewall for a private network

This is one of those actions that you should resort to when nothing else helps. The firewall is one of the main lines of defense of the operating system, and it is recommended to disable it only as a last resort.

By the way, if you are using some other security system like Kaspersky, then you may have to turn it off, unfortunately. But check your access first.

Resetting Windows Network Settings

If none of the tips listed above helped and you still do not see computers in your workgroup, then I would advise you to try resetting the Windows network settings. To do this, go to “Settings” >> “Network and Internet”:

On the left in the menu, select the “Status” section and scroll the page on the right to the very end, where there should be a “Network reset” link. We click on it.

Next, you need to click on the “Reset Now” button. After this, the operating system will completely reinstall the existing network cards and install the default settings on them. Next, you will need to configure the computer again for your network and add it to the workgroup.

Unfortunately, when switching to Windows 10 from the seventh and eighth versions of Windows, it happens that Windows 10 does not see the DVD drive, even though everything was fine before. Moreover, it is detected in the BIOS, you can boot from it, but the system itself, even if you crack it, doesn’t want to see it. What to do?

Why doesn't Windows 10 see the DVD drive?

Let's start with the fact that the release of the “ten”, as is commonly believed, was not authorized or, if you like, synchronized with the manufacturers of equipment of this type.

So it turns out that the system does not accept outdated drivers, but there are no new ones. Now everything is simple. Nevertheless, many users still have the problem that Windows 10 does not see the DVD drive. Let's see what can be done in this situation.

Windows 10 does not see the CD-DVD drive: troubleshooting method

In general, the problem initially comes down to installing drivers corresponding to the “ten” and registering the device in the system.

The first point can be solved quite simply by simply installing fresh drivers. Don't want to do this manually when Windows 10 doesn't see the DVD drive? No problem. Use automation applications like Driver Booster, which can update device drivers directly from the developer's website. And don’t delve into the Windows 10 driver database, it won’t give you anything anyway.

On the other hand, the driver may be installed, but the device itself does not work only because it is not registered in the system, or rather in the system registry. To register, use the command line call from the “Run” menu. This can be done using the Win + R key combination or from the right-click menu on the Start button. And then enter the combination shown in the photo below.

After that, press “Enter” and exit the command console. Now all that remains is to simply reboot the system, and the problem that Windows 10 does not see the DVD drive will completely disappear. Actually, the search for a solution to eliminate it comes down only to installing the latest device drivers or registering the drive in the system so that it recognizes it.

Conclusion and summary

If you look carefully at the registration command, it is easy to determine that it represents entering data into the system registry, and assigning a 32-bit DWORD parameter to the controller. By the way, many may think that 32-bit registration does not apply in a 64-bit system. Deep misconception. In the top ten, most drivers have a 32-bit architecture and work without problems. But on the contrary, when a 64-bit driver is installed on a 32-bit system, the system will simply “spit” and say that such an architecture is not supported.

It goes without saying that after all the above steps the system must be rebooted. Without this, you can’t even count on a positive effect. Here the point is not even that the device will be registered, but rather that it will then be detected by the system, but will not want to work. At this point, the driver plays the leading role.

If the equipment manufacturer claims to support the “ten”, there are no problems, but if it is, for example, specific Chinese equipment, it may very well be that you will have to install “native” drivers. And, as you know, they may not work in the “ten” environment. Moreover, Microsoft itself has never announced such support, considering (and not unreasonably) Chinese manufacturers its direct competitors in the computer technology market. Just look at the recent test of the most powerful computer Sunway TaihuLight with the ability to perform 125 quadrillion floating point operations per second!

Hello! I noticed that information began to appear about another error in Windows 10, when the laptop does not see the Wi-Fi network. The problem is quite common. We want to connect to the Internet via Wi-Fi, we turn on the wireless network, we do everything according to the instructions, but these networks are not in the list of networks available for connection. That is, Windows 10 does not see any Wi-Fi networks that it could connect to. And the Internet icon itself (which is on the notification panel) looks like an antenna with a red cross.

This is actually the problem that, as I understand it, many people face. Yes, thoughts immediately appear about the fact that there are simply no available Wi-Fi networks within the radius, so the laptop does not see them. But, as a rule, when such a problem occurs, there is a Wi-Fi network. Other devices see them. Well, let's try to figure it out. By the way, the problem when Windows does not see wireless networks appears not only in Windows 10, but also in Windows 7 and other versions.

Windows 10 laptop does not see Wi-Fi: several solutions

Let's start with the fact that if you have an icon in the notification panel in the form of an antenna with a red cross, and when you click on it there is a button to turn on Wi-Fi, then this is one problem. I will write about the solution below. But if there is no Wi-Fi button, then that’s another problem. See article. And you can look again.

1 First of all, you need to make sure that Wi-Fi really works in the place where you are. You can check this on another device. For example, the phone. It may also be that there are simply no Wi-Fi networks, so they are not displayed on your laptop. If you have only one network in your house, yours, then reboot the router. You can also restart the computer on which this problem appeared.

2 You can try running troubleshooting. Sometimes it helps. Moreover, it is not difficult. Click on the Internet connection icon in the notification bar, and select Troubleshooting.

A diagnostic window will appear.

Windows will try to find and eliminate possible reasons why the laptop does not see the Wi-Fi network.

3 Check whether the “WLAN AutoConfig Service” is running. If this service is disabled on your computer, then Windows 10 will not be able to see Wi-Fi networks. This service is sometimes disabled by various system "optimizer" programs.

Let's go to services (right-click on the “This PC” icon and select “Manage”, or through the control panel), go to “Services”, find “WLAN Auto Configuration Service”, and look at its status. It should be in the "Running" status and the startup type is "Automatic". Like this:

If the service is disabled, then right-click on it, select "Properties", set the startup type to "Automatic", click "Ok", and restart the computer.

If Windows 10 does not see only your (one) Wi-Fi network

In the comments to the article on connecting to a wireless network, dozens left the following comment:

There is a Wi-Fi network in the house, all devices see it, connect and work, but a laptop with Windows 10 does not see this network. At the same time, he sees other networks. So, I advised you to change the SSID network name and change the channel. Alexander did this, and it helped. The laptop connected to the home network.

I described many different cases and solutions in the article. The article is universal, suitable for Windows 10.

Update: change the region in the properties of the Wi-Fi adapter

In the comments, Timofey suggested an interesting solution that may be useful. His laptop did not want to see one specific Wi-Fi network. Laptop on Windows 10.

The essence of the solution is to open the properties of the Wi-Fi adapter in the device manager, and on the “Advanced” tab, highlighting the “Country Region (2.4GHz)” item, change the value to “#5 (1 - 14)”. Perhaps setting a different value will help in your case. Need to try. Like this:

I haven't checked. I don't have the "Country Region (2.4GHz)" property at all. But this does not mean that the method does not work. Be sure to try it. Write about the results.

The network environment is the basis for building a computer network, be it in the office or at home. Very often, apartments already have several computers, some of them can be for work, others for gaming. But at the same time, everyone has access to the Internet. And therefore they are connected together to the Internet gateway either wired or wireless. For a long time they can work normally without the need to create a local network. Until, for example, you need to print a document on a printer connected to a nearby computer.

And then it turns out that the computer is not visible on the network. There can be quite a lot of obvious and hidden problems. But the problems that may occur when working with Windows 10 are not entirely ordinary. And solutions for them are not entirely common on the Internet.

The most common reasons, which are similar to working in other versions of Windows

Of course, the general standard for building networks is the same not only for Windows-based computers, but also for other operating networks. Therefore, some errors are not specific to Windows 10, but simply spread across all versions of this operating system. And they need to be solved just like any other. Therefore, it is not worth focusing serious attention on them in this article, the reasons for which we may not be able to see the computer on the network:

Possible problems with Windows 10

However, with all the old problems of a computer not being on the network, new ones have appeared in the new operating system. And they are worth considering. Before making changes to the system, we recommend making a restore point.

Reason #1. There is no user on the computer with a password set

Security policies in Windows 10 by default require online login using a password. Even if there is a user on the computer, but he does not have a password, he will not be able to log in via the network. Often passwords are not set on home computers, especially if you do not need to work in the OneDrive cloud and set up synchronization.

In this case, you can try setting up security policies. Another option is to enable the Guest user, but it is best to create a user with a password. Set a new, equally strong password to an existing password; to do this, right-click on the “This PC” icon --> Manage --> Local users --> Users

In the event that you do not want to enter a password each time to log into the system, where a choice of two users will appear, this can always be disabled.

Reason #2. Can't see a computer on the network from another running Windows XP

The latest fresh builds of Windows 10 will not be detected over the network if an attempt is made to log into them while using the old OS. For example - Windows XP or lower (Windows 2003 Server, Windows 2000).

This happens due to the fact that OSs run on different protocols by default. Windows XP is at least ten years older. And the basis for network work in it was SMBv1. It is already disabled by default in the latest line of Microsoft OS. It is disabled for security reasons. However, you can turn it on.
This requires:

Please remember that when you connect or disconnect a component, you will need to reboot. Otherwise, no changes will occur. And everything will remain in its place.

Reason #3. Feature Discovery Resource Publishing service disabled

Windows 10 has acquired a large set of new features. In particular, for greater security of the computer and user data. On some versions, some services may simply be disabled. This is especially true for home or single-user versions of the OS. Therefore, it must be enabled to provide access.
In particular, a very important service is Function Discovery Resource Publication.

However, because of this service, sharing may not always work. And to solve the problem, you should turn to it almost as a last resort, when all other options have been exhausted.

Reason #4. The file sharing component is not checked for the established network connection

In this case, the connection itself will refuse to provide access. Typically, connection sharing is enabled automatically. However, antivirus software or Windows Defender may disable this component. Again, for security purposes for a reason that is known only to the antivirus itself)

It's easy to fix or check:

1. You need to select the connection at the bottom near the clock and left-click.
2. Select "Network and Internet Settings"
3. On the left, select Ethernet (or if the connection is via WiFi, then WifFi - you need to check what access is being made through)
4. Adapter Settings
5. Double-click to open the connection
6. Select properties
7. In the components window, locate the File and Printer Sharing for Microsoft Networks component.
   Check that the component is enabled. If not, turn it on and then click OK. And close all the windows. After this, it is recommended to restart your computer.

Why Windows 7 does not see computers on the network we looked at