File Explorer may not detect other devices or perform file sharing on the local network when running Windows 10 version 1803

After installing the Windows 10 April 2018 Update (Windows 10 version 1803), File Explorer cannot connect to other devices running version 1803.  When clicking the Network tab in File Explorer, other devices on the home network running version 1803 do not appear, and thus I’m not able to perform file sharing or access files on other devices on my home network.

I have been having this problem for several weeks and yesterday got a friend to help, He works for a computer fraud company and even he took a few hours to do a workable fix to allow me to use my network.

Step 1

I have to use the \computername in the file explorer box to get the computers to be seen under the network tab BUT then you get the error message "you do not have permission to access this drive see network administer for access"

Step 2

go to the computer you want to access and open file manager and right click the drives (this does not work on C drive) then click on the give access to tab and use advanced sharing,add everyone to the list and give them full access. THEN go to the security tab and add everyone there with full access and full networking returns ( or it did for me) but you have to do this to every drive on every machine BUT you cannot do this to the C drive as certain files are locked and you cannot delock them whilst they are in use.

It seems the 1803 update has reset all the security permissions to the highest settings ie no one has access but the person who owns the files even if you are the only one who uses the computer,The old homegroup allowed access without these permissions so it was a security risk but if you had a good firewall to the outside on your router you were reasonabily safe BUT Microsoft reset everything without asking you and effectly locked you out of your network.

I do not know if this will work on your machines but it has on mine with the only chore that network discovery is now a manual process not a automatic

Microsoft is aware of reports that devices running Windows 10 version 1803 cannot connect to other devices on their home network and is investigating the issue.

You can resolve this problem by setting some services to Automatic (Delayed Start) and restarting Windows:

1. Press the Windows Key and R at the same time to bring up the Run dialog.
2. Type services.msc in the Run dialog and press Enter.
3. For each of the following services, locate the service in list, right-click the service and select Properties.  Then set the Startup type to Automatic (Delayed Start) and select Apply.
   • Computer Browser (Browser)
   • Function Discovery Provider Host (FDPHost)
   • Function Discovery Resource Publication (FDResPub)
   • Network Connections (NetMan)
   • UPnP Device Host (UPnPHost)
   • Peer Name Resolution Protocol (PNRPSvc)
   • Peer Networking Grouping (P2PSvc)
   • Peer Networking Identity Manager (P2PIMSvc)
4. Restart Windows.

Should you have any other concerns don't hesitate to post back.

Get another error what the F*** is going on here ?

Microsoft is aware of reports that devices running Windows 10 version 1803 cannot connect to other devices on their home network and is investigating the issue.

You can resolve this problem by setting some services to Automatic (Delayed Start) and restarting Windows:

1. Press the Windows Key and R at the same time to bring up the Run dialog.
2. Type services.msc in the Run dialog and press Enter.
3. For each of the following services, locate the service in list, right-click the service and select Properties.  Then set the Startup type to Automatic (Delayed Start) and select Apply.
   • Computer Browser (Browser)
   • Function Discovery Provider Host (FDPHost)
   • Function Discovery Resource Publication (FDResPub)
   • Network Connections (NetMan)
   • UPnP Device Host (UPnPHost)
   • Peer Name Resolution Protocol (PNRPSvc)
   • Peer Networking Grouping (P2PSvc)
   • Peer Networking Identity Manager (P2PIMSvc)
4. Restart Windows.

Should you have any other concerns don't hesitate to post back.

This did not work for me.  I tried in vain to change Startup Type for several of these services which were set to Manual. But could not change Startup Type.  In Properties window, Startup field is color gray and unchangeable.  Any other suggestions?

Microsoft is aware of reports that devices running Windows 10 version 1803 cannot connect to other devices on their home network and is investigating the issue.

You can resolve this problem by setting some services to Automatic (Delayed Start) and restarting Windows:

1. Press the Windows Key and R at the same time to bring up the Run dialog.
2. Type services.msc in the Run dialog and press Enter.
3. For each of the following services, locate the service in list, right-click the service and select Properties.  Then set the Startup type to Automatic (Delayed Start) and select Apply.
   • Computer Browser (Browser)
   • Function Discovery Provider Host (FDPHost)
   • Function Discovery Resource Publication (FDResPub)
   • Network Connections (NetMan)
   • UPnP Device Host (UPnPHost)
   • Peer Name Resolution Protocol (PNRPSvc)
   • Peer Networking Grouping (P2PSvc)
   • Peer Networking Identity Manager (P2PIMSvc)
4. Restart Windows.

Should you have any other concerns don't hesitate to post back.

This did not work for me.  I tried in vain to change Startup Type for several of these services which were set to Manual. But could not change Startup Type.  In Properties window, Startup field is color gray and unchangeable.  Any other suggestions?

I''m sorry if I over-simplify but did you:

Right click on the Service you want to change; such as Function Discovery Provider Host

Left click on Services.  In the middle of the box is Startup Type.  Left click on the drop-down arrow and left click on Automatic (Delayed Start).  This should make the Apply box at the bottom light up.   Select it and then select OK.   The box closes and then you redo these steps for the rest of the services (except the first one, Computer Browser, that seems to give all of us an error code; skip that one if you want, it probably won't work.    After you've got them all changed to Automatic (Delayed Start) reboot.   Then, if you go to File Explorer and Left click on Network, you should now be able to see other PC's on your network. 

You will then have to do the same to these other PC's if you want to be able to see all your computers on the network from any machine. 

As I said, it worked for me but I cannot say what other problems you might have received from the WIn10 download.  Since Windows downloads updates whenever they please you often don't know you are in the middle of a download.   If your battery runs down or you loose power, or, for some reason you do a hard shutdown, the whole download could get messed up.   I'm far from an expert but the method of updating is really poor.  Oh, and sharing is another mess that I won't try to help with because I haven't totally figured it out yet.   Looks like we still have some of the Homegroup programming but not all of it.   We have some of the old sharing methods but not all of them.   I don't think anyone at Windows knows how the system is set up anymore.    Hope this helps some.   I'm about ready to sign off until the next mess is downloaded.