How do I change my network location from Public to Home in Win7?

Anonymous

On my server I am running Win 7 Pro 64-bit (SP1) with a wired Ethernet connection to my router.

I have several other networked devices in my network including wired and wireless devices, Win 7 PCs, a Win XP PC, and some other devices such as network backup, and media center. I am having problems with devices seeing each other (especially my server) and sharing resources (files and printing).

On my server I am able to connect to the internet through my wired connection. However, in "Network and Sharing Center" under active networks I see "You are currently not connected to any networks." The link to "Connect to a network" shows that I have no networks to connect to. When I try to connect to my homegroup or to create a homegroup, I am told "To create or join a homegroup, your computer's network location must be set to Home." Mine is set to public and I cannot change this as to make this change requires me to click on the Home/Work/Public icon/link in my active network and I do not have any active (or inactive) network. Therefore there is no link to allow me to get to the "Change Network Location" dialog box.

I have tried trouble shooting the network (no problems found) and the Homegroup troubleshoot (no problems found).

I have considered doing a Win 7 Repair Install to fix whatever network configuation problems I am unable to access. However, my original disk is an OEM Windows 7 Pro 64-bit without SP1. Now that my machine has been on SP1 for about a year, it will not allow me to do a Repair Install and the version on my machine is newer (greater) than what is on the installation disk. Also I considered un-installing SP1 but that also failed. Some error message about missing files. I even tried the Command Line un-install of SP1 and that also failed.

What can I do to fix this short of a complete wipe of the disk drive and a clean install?

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UPDATE: Feb. 13, 2015 - Finally Fixed!

The post on Jan 28, 2015 by BennyPootron led me to the solution.

In RegEdit, at "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\NetworkList\Profiles" I deleted all the profiles under this (I had three).

Also, at "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\NetworkList\Signatures\Unmanaged" were three corresponding items which I also deleted. This cleaned the slate, so to speak, and when I rebooted, I was able to change my network location to Home and then join my Home Group.

Many thanks to BennyPootron for the insight that led to my solution.

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Anonymous

I don't know if this applies to Windows 7, but it does work in Windows 8 and Windows 10.

Open "RegEdit"

Go to "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\NetworkList\Profiles"

Locate the Network Location

Change the DWORD Value "Category" to 1

If this doesn't work, delete the key of the network, restart your computer, and repeat. It should work after that.

Not exactly the answer, but this led to the solution. FINALLY FIXED!! Here's how:

In RegEdit, at "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\NetworkList\Profiles" I had three profiles with names such as {4A3BFF36-4EA6-4415-AA5F-46CE449C95AB}. I tried several things including changing the DWORD value of the item "Category" to 1 in all three of these profiles. That did NOT work.

However, I eventually deleted all three of the Profiles.

Also, at "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\NetworkList\Signatures\Unmanaged" were three corresponding items which I also deleted. This cleaned the slate, so to speak.

THIS WORKED!

When I re-booted, I was able to change my network from Public to Private and it walked me through the process of joining an existing Home Group established by another computer in our household.

Finally nearly 3 years after my original post, I have the problem fixed.

Many thanks to BennyPootron for the insight to a solution.

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56 additional answers

Anonymous

2012-12-25T15:08:25+00:00

After all these months, this is still a problem.

I guess the people at Microsoft are TOO STUPID to figure this out and provide a solution.

Extremely UNHAPPY with Microsoft support. They are making me an Android fan.
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Anonymous

2017-01-05T18:02:04+00:00

Hey all, I know this is a really old thread, but I had the exact same problem and this solved it. Any idea how on earth this problem could occur? For me it seemed out of nowhere
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Anonymous

2012-05-04T20:21:38+00:00
Thank you for your interest in my issue. As I mentioned above:

"in "Network and Sharing Center" under active networks I see "You are currently not connected to any networks." The link to "Connect to a network" shows that I have no networks to connect to."

A screen shot of this is on Dropbox at: http://db.tt/Qyy6eSAh

Therefore, in Step 2 of the "Choosing a network location" procedure you pointed me to follow, there are no links in the Networks and Sharing Center for me to accomplish the change. If I attempt to create a network connection, it automatically selects WAN Miniport (PPPOE) as the network adaptor, which in essence does nothing and cannot connect to anything. I cannot create or connect to a new network.

Per your second request, a screen shot of my ipconfig /all is at http://db.tt/H4ehKOrh

My network setup is as follows:

I have Linksys WRT54G2 wireless router connected to the Intenet via a Time Warner Cable Road Runner cable modem. Three devices are connected via Ethernet cable to the WRT54G2:

1) Sonata - this is the computer with the issue. It is a Windows 7 Pro 64-bit (SP1) machine. I use it as a file and print server as well as a web server. It has a static IP address so that the router can route HTTP traffic to this machine. (More on this machine below.)

2) A Synology DiskStation device used for file backups
1. A Western Digital TV Live Plus media center
In addition I have several wireless devices on the network including:
1. A HP Pavilion laptop PC running Win 7 Home Premium (SP1)
2. An older Dell laptop running Windows XP (SP3)
3. An Android tablet
4. my Android cell phone
Up until a few days ago I had no problems with all the machines "seeing" each other in Windows Explorer and in the Networks and Sharing Center . I was able to share files and print to the printer connected to Sonata from all other PCs.

Additional information about the Sonata server which may be helpful:

Sonata contains a Gigabyte motherboard with a built-in NIC - a Realtek RTL8168C(P)/8111C(P). This has been the only NIC in the machine for two years.

I have done considerable Intenet research on this problem. One place suggested that corrupted NIC drivers may be the problem. Therefore I installed another NIC into this machine, a D-Link DGE-530T gigabit ethernet adaptor. I disabled the Realtek adaptor and configured the D-Link DGE-530T with new drivers which I had just installed. The new NIC still connects to the Internet just fine, but I still have the problems of (1) no networks in the Networks and Sharing Center, (2) the Sonata server still cannot connect to my Home Group because the network location is still stuck in Public, and (3) machines cannot see each other consistently over the network. (I say consistently because on a few rare occasions one PC can see the others, and later they cannot)

Any help is appreciated. Thanks.
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Anonymous

2012-05-04T18:57:23+00:00

Hi,

Is the computer connected to multiple networks?

Follow the steps provided in the following link to change the network location.

‘Choosing a network location’

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/Choosing-a-network-location

If you’re unable to change the network location then, let us know what exactly happens when you try to change the network location.

If the location keeps changing to public then follow these steps and provide us the information.

a) Click on start and type ‘cmd’ and press enter.

b) Type ‘ipconfig’ and press enter and provide us the information.

Also describe your network setup.
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