windows 10 not showing computers in network in file browser

Question

this problem that windows has is really weird. i have 2 laptops running windows 10 pro (creators update) and a virtual machine running on one of them(windows server 2012 r2). after each restart one or two of these computers disappear from network folder. this problem happens for all these computers. the thing is i can ping all these machines from other computers on the network. I also can access them by typing their names in address bar like (\computer1\ or \computer2\ etc) but they are not appear in the network section. the image might help you to understand the problem better :

In first computer I can see all computers on the network. on the 2nd one(virtual) I can only see my Surface and on my surface I cannot see the other two. now I type the name of the computers in my Surface file explorer address bar and look at this :

first computer(Alienware) appears on the quick access area but still missing from network section is there any fix for this problem?

Answer 1

The feature you are talking about is called "computer browser". It uses a 1996 technology based on SMB version 1.0. It has never been reliable (because it uses broadcast and NetBIOS) and Microsoft is planning to deprecate it. Even if your Windows Firewall rules allow such traffic, the computers may still not appear.

Consider creating shortcuts for \\SURFACE and \\ALIENWARE instead. Or, pin them to Quick Access.

Answer 2

Turn on and off SMB 1.0 to reinstall it.

Answer 3

See if you have Windows Creators Update (winver 1703) on your network - if so disable computer browser on that computer and let another computer take the role of master browser. Master Browser is broken on Windows 1703.

Answer 4

I have had this problem for months and, having checked and re-checked all the relevant settings on all the 5 computers (4 x Windows 10 and 1 x Windows 7) eventually stumbled on a cure.

Two of the Windows 10 computers normally run 24/7, but when one of them was turned off, the other 4 showed up properly in explorer. When the 5th computer was restarted, the problem came back, so at least I now knew where the problem was.

As the 5th computer was otherwise fine, I tried, out of desperation, a new wireless network card in it. Now everything works.