Windows 10: My Computer Functions As If It Is Connected to a Network Drive

I am using Windows 10 release 1909 on my personal laptop. I am having unusual behavior from it.

1. It shows a message that that I am connected to an external drive, which I do not have, when I run my antivirus.
2. It doesn't update Windows automatically and sometime when I update manually it reverts back to the previous version or pauses updates. To remedy that I added a registry key to prevent update pausing.
3. I have made no modifications to the display but it is no longer changing and updating the picture on the lock screen.
4. I have two word processors on my computer. Word and WordPerfect. I get a message, "Access Denied: you do not have rights to do this.", when I try to save files in WordPerfect. I have used both word processors with no issue but suddenly I am getting that message. It is related to the fact that my computer reacts as if I am connected to another drive.

Is there some setting that I tripped off which is causing this issue? How can I get everything functioning again.

:)

 

Connecting computer with no internet connection to network printer


@dk1971

1. Open Admin command and type: ipconfig
   
   
   
2. Win+X->Control Panel->Netwok and Sharing Center
   Follow the screen shot. This should disable internet access from this PC but allows access to local device(s)
   NOTE: Use the IP & Subnet Mask from step 1. Leave Default gateway & DNS Server blank
   
   
   

 

Help needed with simple wired network

Step one- Connect all PC's to router, and then the router to the modem. PC's go to router by the ports labeled "1-4" on the back of the router. WAN port goes to router. Power up all network equipment, and then systems.
Step two- Power on the computer connected to port one. Go into router settings at 192.168.0.1 and configure internet, dyndns, firewall, etc.
Step three- Go to "network set up wizard" in windows. (Network places- network set up wizard). The rest is self explanatory.
Step four- right click on each drive and printer you want to share, and then configure sharing preferences. Should be easy enough.
Step five- right click my computer, and the select "map network drive". Using the network address for each piece of hardware you shared, assign network drive letters.

Congratulations, you have a fully operational network. Happy Gaming! *Toast :toast:

 

Computers connect on home network only sporadically

NetBScanner
NetBScanner - NetBIOS scanner

I did a scan from each computer. None of the computers is the Master Browser. Do I have to wait an hour or so until that is decided?


NetBScanner from DarkMatter




NetBScanner from EventHorizon




NetBScanner from Lightning




- - - Updated - - -

Since there appeared to be no Master Browser I did a little more research. To my surprise I found out we have been beating a dead horse. Master Browser is no longer supported by Microsoft. This is because SMBv1 which the Computer Browser service uses was removed from Windows 10 back in 2017.

An article from Microsoft gave two alternatives:

• Use Network Discovery
• Map drives and printers (recommended)

I set up Network Discovery as the article suggested. I was surprised to see that all three of my computers were each seeing all the others. I think I will stick with this for now.

Here is an excerpt from an article at Microsoft:

Explorer Network Browsing

The Computer Browser service relies on the SMBv1 protocol to populate the Windows Explorer Network node (also known as "Network Neighborhood"). This legacy protocol is long deprecated, doesn't route, and has limited security. Because the service cannot function without SMBv1, it is removed at the same time.

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:

1. Start the "Function Discovery Provider Host" and "Function Discovery Resource Publication" services, and then set them to Automatic (Delayed Start).
2. 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.

Note

We recommend that you map drives and printers instead of enabling this feature, which still requires searching and browsing for their devices. Mapped resources are easier to locate, require less training, and are safer to use. This is especially true if these resources are provided automatically through Group Policy. An administrator can configure printers for location by methods other than the legacy Computer Browser service by using IP addresses, Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS), Bonjour, mDNS, uPnP, and so on.

References

SMBv1 is not installed by default in Windows 10 version 1709, Windows Server version 1709 and later versions
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-nz/win...ult-in-windows