WSD discovery method in Windows 7
I've noticed on Windows 7 in the network browsing window that Windows 7 clients are listed as being discovered using NETBIOS (as in older versions of Windows), whereas Vista clients are listed as WSD. Is there a way of changing the settings in Windows 7 so the discovery method is WSD also? I've tried searching everywhere but I can't seem to find much information on it. I prefer the WSD discovery because it populates the columns for MAC and IP address which is useful.
March 9th, 2011 1:17pm

Hi, Windows 7 Network Discovery method rests with the target PC. Usually, WSD discovery method is used by default, but it doesn’t apply with old version of Windows. And I have tested on my machine, both enable NetBIOS or start service "Function Discovery Resource Publication" cannot change the discovery method. That seems by design. Thank you for your understanding. Regards, Leo Huang TechNet Subscriber Support in forum. If you have any feedback on our support, please contact tngfb@microsoft.com Please remember to click “Mark as Answer” on the post that helps you, and to click “Unmark as Answer” if a marked post does not actually answer your question. This can be beneficial to other community members reading the thread.
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March 10th, 2011 4:20am

Since this is by desgin feature, I will mark their reply as answer. It could help other communities here who have the same issue. Thanks for your understanding. Regards, Leo Huang TechNet Subscriber Support in forum. If you have any feedback on our support, please contact tngfb@microsoft.com Please remember to click Mark as Answer on the post that helps you, and to click Unmark as Answer if a marked post does not actually answer your question. This can be beneficial to other community members reading the thread.
March 13th, 2011 9:42pm

It's a design feature that Windows 7 doesn't show up as WSD in the browser? That makes no sense. Like you said, I thought it was only older versions of Windows i.e. pre-Vista that do this. I was under the impression Microsoft was trying to get rid of NETBIOS so there must be a way of changing it.
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March 22nd, 2011 9:57pm

WSD discovery method is used by default. What I said it Windows 7 use WSD discovery by default. But discover old version of Windows is use NetBIOS discovery. You can try to disable NetBIOS on these old versions PCs to see the result. Hope that helps. Regards, Leo Huang TechNet Subscriber Support in forum. If you have any feedback on our support, please contact tngfb@microsoft.com Please remember to click Mark as Answer on the post that helps you, and to click Unmark as Answer if a marked post does not actually answer your question. This can be beneficial to other community members reading the thread.
March 24th, 2011 12:49am

I'm not trying to discover older versions of Windows, I'm trying to discover Windows 7 clients from a Windows 7 client, which show up as NETBIOS in the network browser window rather than as WSD, which is how Vista shows up. What I want to do is change the broadcast of Windows 7 clients so they show up as WSD as well, the same as Vista. Unmark the answer, because that's clearly not it.
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March 30th, 2011 7:57am

I'm told by PSS that it is by design, although they can't explain to me why columns for IP address and MAC address have been added to the Windows 7 network browser and they're only populated when using WSD. The theory was that lots of things use WSD, not just Vista. I've got to say I'm not sure I buy this explanation, it just doesn't make sense that Microsoft would go back to NETBIOS from WSD but I can't be bothered anymore.
April 12th, 2011 8:59pm

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