Network Discovery does not find other computers
I have Windows 7 Home Premium on 2 PCs and Windows 7 Ultimate on one PC. In the Network window on just one of the Home Premium PCs I can still see the local computer but no longer see other computers in the Workgroup. The other two work fine as always. The Network and sharing centre network diagram shows all the computers and both switches. If I create a shortcut to any of the \\PC-NAME it works fine, I can ping all the PCs by name and by IP address. I think this may have happened when I tried to install SpiceWorks on the Win7 Ultimate PC that wanted to use WMI and it told me to edit something in the GPO on the clients (Win7 Home Premium) but of course I don't have that ability in Home Premium. The SpiceWorks is now removed anyway and the Ultimate PC was, did and still works fine.
March 25th, 2010 2:16am

Hi, Based on my research, I would like to suggest you try the following on the problematic Windows 7 computer: 1. Boot the problematic Windows 7 computer to “Safe Mode with networking” to check if it will work. 2. Run the following command in an elevated command prompt to disable Windows Firewall and check the issue: Netsh advfirewall set allprofiles state off Note: This is just for test; please turn it back on with the command “Netsh advfirewall set allprofiles state on”. 3. Please go to “Control Panel\Network and Internet\Network and Sharing Center\Advanced sharing settings” to ensure that “Network Discovery” and “File and Printer Sharing” are enabled. 4. Check the NIC configuration: 1) Go to “Control Panel\Network and Internet\Network Connections”. 2) Right-Click on the connection and choose Properties. 3) Ensure the following items are enabled: File and Printer Sharing for Microsoft Windows Link-Layer Topology Discovery Mapper I/O Driver Link-Layer Topology Discovery Responder 5. Boot the computer to Clean Boot environment to check if it works: How to troubleshoot a problem by performing a clean boot in Windows Vista or in Windows 7 Hope this helps. Thanks. Nicholas Li - MSFT
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March 26th, 2010 12:39pm

Nicholas, I had already tried 1, 2, 3 & 4 before asking this question. Now I have tried 5 and it made no difference. Do you know what it may have been that SpiceWorks wanted me to edit in the configuration of WMI and how that could now be effecting discovery? How do I see the WMI settings and set them back to default? Can I have changed my GPObjects accidentally? How do I see what they are set to on HomePremium? Can I see them from the Ultimate PC?
April 6th, 2010 1:02pm

Hi, Regarding what changes have been made by Spiceworks, since this is related to a third-party application and we have limited resources about it, please contact Spiceworks support for help: Spiceworks support Please Note: Since the website is not hosted by Microsoft, the link may change without notice. Microsoft does not guarantee the accuracy of this information. For this issue, if you have installed some security software (firewall, anti-virus, anti-spyware, etc.), please temporarily disable or uninstall it to see if it works. Thanks. Nicholas Li - MSFT
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April 7th, 2010 9:53am

Nicholas,I have already tried asking Spiceworks without any success. They say much the same as you do "its the other person's fault"...Also I have tried with no connexion to the internet with all security turned off - no difference.What I really need is advice on how to check the current settings that effect this area and/or how to reset them to defaults. Where are the GPOs that effect Discovery and/or WMI located? How do I view and/or edit them on Home Premium? Is there a tool or command line utility that will tell me what is configured differently to default? Is there a tool that will compare the settings on one machine with the other so I can discover what is different?I feel competent to do the detective work but I have no idea where the tools to use are located nor what they are named!Thanks for help so far!JohnA
April 15th, 2010 12:40pm

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