Windows 10: Network misidentifies a Computer

Questions: How can I get my wife's PC to show up as a "Computer" instead of a "Media Device" on my network?


Background: I have three computers at home, a laptop and two PCs, all running version 2004 of Windows 10. The newest PC and the laptop both came with Windows 10 and the old PC originally came with Windows 7. It was once part of a "home network" when my old computer had Windows 7 but that "workgroup" is, of course, gone now.


Observation: The newer PC and the Laptop are good friends on the network - they show up and can be browsed as expected on each of the three computers - but the old PC shows up in the network on all three as a "Media Device". This is useless for browsing shared files.


So Far: I CAN access the old PC on the others by using Window key + R and typing in the computer's name. That's fine for me, but it would be much better to be able to browse it as I can the other two since it's my wife's computer and she's "command line challenged" and doesn't like to use that method.

I have checked and verified that all the settings on all three computers are set up for file sharing, private networking and "all network" file sharing. None are set up for media streaming.

:)

 

One computer cannot access other network computers.


So I've tried every troubleshooting step I know:

• Double checked that Net Bios was enabled
• Ran a bunch of network commands:
  • flushed DNS
  • registered dns
  • pinged and located the named computers successfully
• Reset my router to factory settings

Nothing works when I try to access via explorer. I'm still baffled by the fact that every other computer can access each other AND access this computer. It's just the outgoing connection from this machine that doesn't work.

Any thoughts?

 

Unable to browse network computers.

We suggest creating a new administrator user account by following the steps
here. Make sure to use the same network settings that you used for your other computers, then check if you can connect to the home network. Since you also mentioned that Windows 10 was freshly installed on this particular computer, have you already downloaded
the latest updates? The latest build for Version 1607 is 14393.1715, and 15063.608 for Version 1703. You can check the build version of your computer by following these steps:

• Click Start.
• Type winver and press Enter.

If you don't have the latest updates, you can follow these steps to install them:

• Click Start.
• Go to Settings.
• Click Update & security.
• Click Check for updates.

If that doesn't work, we'd like screenshots of the network and file sharing settings of the computer that doesn't work, and the settings of one of your other computers that can connect and share files properly on the home network.

 

Basic Network guide

I'll be adding a small page on doing this in windows vista soon, since XP is the same with a step or two less, i assume people will figure it out.