To explain the problem :
On Window 8.1, and presumably Windows 8, when using a Microsoft account to login to Windows, the default user-name when you make a network connection is MicrosoftAccount\<live_id_username>, instead of the login <computer_name>\<username> as in previous versions of Windows.
This MicrosoftAccount form is likely to cause a login failure on any server that is not using a Microsoft account, due to the strict way that Microsoft/Local accounts are implemented in Windows 8/8.1.
I have not been able to find a way of forcing Windows 8/8.1 to use the old format of computer-name\user-name, unless with one of the workarounds you have listed in your post.
Probably this problem needs to be addressed by Microsoft itself.
I have tested and this is still true in Windows 10, so don't expect any improvement. Unfortunately, this is just the way that Microsoft/Local accounts were implemented.
Answer from harrymc on Stack ExchangeTo explain the problem :
On Window 8.1, and presumably Windows 8, when using a Microsoft account to login to Windows, the default user-name when you make a network connection is MicrosoftAccount\<live_id_username>, instead of the login <computer_name>\<username> as in previous versions of Windows.
This MicrosoftAccount form is likely to cause a login failure on any server that is not using a Microsoft account, due to the strict way that Microsoft/Local accounts are implemented in Windows 8/8.1.
I have not been able to find a way of forcing Windows 8/8.1 to use the old format of computer-name\user-name, unless with one of the workarounds you have listed in your post.
Probably this problem needs to be addressed by Microsoft itself.
I have tested and this is still true in Windows 10, so don't expect any improvement. Unfortunately, this is just the way that Microsoft/Local accounts were implemented.
I managed to share folders without passwords in Windows 10 with Microsoft Accounts by following this guide: http://www.howtogeek.com/126214/how-to-create-network-file-shares-with-no-passwords-in-windows-8/
I publish here in order to prevent link rot:
- Open Network and Sharing Center
- Then click on the Change advanced sharing settings Link in the left hand panel.
- Now expand the All Networks section.
- Finally switch the radial button to the Turn off password protected sharing setting and click Save changes.
- It works!
I did not try this extensively (for example if you need to have a password protected share instead), as all the shares in my LAN don't need to be password protected, and since there's no wifi, I know that i'm the only one to access the share. But I think, if it disable all the passwords, it will still work with NTFS access permissions
Videos
I found one way to access the shared folder without giving the username and password.
We need to change the share folder protect settings in the machine where the folder has been shared.
Go to Control Panel > Network and sharing center > Change advanced sharing settings > Enable Turn Off password protect sharing option.
By doing the above settings we can access the shared folder without any username/password.
You need to go to user accounts and enable Guest Account, its default disabled. Once you do this, you share any folder and add the guest account to the list of users who can accesss that specific folder, this also includes to Turn off password Protected Sharing in 'Advanced Sharing Settings'
The other way to do this where you only enter a password once is to join a Homegroup. if you have a network of 2 or more computers, they can all connect to a homegroup and access all the files they need from each other, and anyone outside the group needs a 1 time password to be able to access your network, this was introduced in windows 7.
I have NEVER gotten this work, EVER. On and off over the years I've tried another shot at it only to have my time wasted and realized it was much faster just to get up and grab my USB drive and copy everything manually. I've tried this on many different computers over the years and this never works.
I've tried every method that I could possibly find online. These common suggestions I've all already tried:
In the "Advanced Sharing Settings," make sure that "Turn off password protected sharing" is enabled.
In the Security Settings. Find the policy named "Accounts: Limit local account use of blank passwords to console logon only" and set it to "Disabled."
Set permissions in the folder to full access and/or adding explicit users Guest and Anonymous.
Allow insecure network logins in group share policy.
If this actually works already for someone, I'd like to know about it. I think it's only because the host machine has a local account without a login password and Windows doesn't like that. The only time Windows sharing ever worked for me was on PCs with passworded logins which I have to log into using my Microsoft account email and password. Seems like when you try this, there are countless redundant measures to deny you access but you will never know which one of these policies is blocking you.
Edit: I got partially this working. First on machines that are on Windows 10 Pro. All they need is the "Turn off password protected sharing", "Allow insecure network logins", and "Accounts: Limit local account use of blank passwords to console logon only". This doesn't work on the Home edition of Windows due to gpedit and secpol missing but did get it to work after upgrading. It didn't work out of the box after the upgrade and unfortunately I couldn't isolate what I did to get it working. Here is what I did: reset firewall settings. Add a new folder to share after upgrade. Turn off and on network discovery and sharing again. Turn off password protected sharing on and off. Disable hibernate. Remove page file.
One caveat is that all these computers have the exact same login. An offline account with the username "User" and no password. When try to access any of these computers from another PC with a Microsoft login, I am prevented from doing so, presumably from the client side, since I can access all of them from an Android phone...
I have a Windows 10 machine that I use as a home server with five different drives that I have set to be shared with Everyone with full permission. I’m unable to access the server without a username and password no matter what I try, and have exhausted the settings checks available from internet searching. I’ve made changes to both the server and other PCs that I use to access it for access without a password and network discovery, etc. What am I missing?
I have two Windows 10 computers, one desktop with a wired network connection and a laptop connected via wifi. I've created a share folder on the desktop. On that computer in the 'Network and Sharing' Center I have 'Turn on File and Printer Sharing' enabled in both 'Private' and 'Guest or Public' sections. In the 'All Networks' section I have 'Turn on sharing so anyone with network access can read and write files in the Public folders' on. In the same section I have 'Turn off password protected sharing' selected.
With all that, I can see the desktop computer on my laptop, but I'm still prompted for a login. I've restarted both machines several times.
Can anyone help? Thanks.
Edit: Yes, I have right clicked the Folder and select Properties > Sharing Then click share and give it a name. Gone into Advanced Sharing->Permissions and set 'Everyone' to have read and write permissions.
Edit 2: I have been able to do this before with another computer that is now dead. I could simply navigate to \[PC NAME]\[Shared]\ in my network. I also had two TVs that could browse them as well with no credentials necessary.
I pulled out my old Windows 7 PC. Created an identical account and applied the same password to the account that I use on the Windows 10 PC. Turned off password protected sharing on both PCs. Then tested that I could access the shared folders on either PC without entering account credentials. It worked. So, the answer in my case was to have the same account name and password on both PCs.
In all the demo and tutorials that I have seen and read, no one mentions that the same account/password has to be created on the source and target PCs where "password protected sharing = off". Otherwise, the credentials must be entered to access the share.
Update:
- The Windows 7 PC can access the Windows 10 share without entering credentials
- The Windows 10 PC can access the Windows 7 share without entering credentials
- The Windows 7 PC cannot access the Windows 11 share without entering credentials
- The Windows 10 PC cannot access the Windows 11 share without entering credentials
- The Windows 11 PC cannot access the Windows 10 share without entering credentials
- The Windows 11 PC can access the Windows 7 share without entering credentials
I don't get it. Each PC has the same configuration. Gees!
Hi lintekPC, I hope your doing well despite the problem you are experiencing now and I'm sorry for that. For that let me try to assist you.
Have you checked your Advanced sharing settings?
You can go directly to your search bar and type "advanced sharing" and hit enter key. From there you will see it is under Network and Sharing Center > Advanced sharing settings in the address bar. Click the down arrow in All Networks . Then select Turn of password protected sharing.
Here is also a link so you can visualize the procedure
https://www.tips-howto.com/disable-password-pro...
Disclaimer: The link above is a non-Microsoft website. The page appears to be providing accurate, safe information. Watch out for ads on the site that may advertise products frequently classified as PUP (Potentially Unwanted Products). Thoroughly research any product advertised on the site before you decide to download and install it.
I hope this helps. Please let me know if I didn't address your problem. Don't hesitate to ask for further assistance.
Regards,
Arnel
Question is old but none of the answers fully cover the problem. There are a number of ways to accomplish this. There is one that works every time.
- Press the
key to open the Start menu and, without clicking anything, type sharing. - At the top should be
Manage advanced sharing settings. Click that. - Expand the heading for
All Networksand find the section calledPassword protected sharing. - Set that to
Turn off password protected sharing. - Click
Save changes. - You may need to restart or unshare and reshare for the settings to take effect.
Also make sure that the file permissions of the files and folders being shared also allow access to Everyone. File permissions are managed separately from share permissions and whichever is more restrictive wins.
This should work in Windows 7 through 10 without issue.
Additional Notes:
In versions of windows before Vista, file sharing was unpassworded by default. If you shared files everyone on the same network as your computer could access (and alter) files in the share as they saw fit. Starting in Vista, in addition to a number of other security improvements for sharing, MS made it so sharing without a password was unavailable by default. This is the setting that reverts to the old behavior. Obviously, it shouldn't be turned off without also taking other steps to secure the shared files in shared network environments. Sharing with Everyone in such cases would be unwise.
Here is how to access the shared resources using a "Microsoft account username and password" or turning off password protection.
On the network machine whose shared drive or folder or file you are trying to access, set up a LOCAL user account and password for the machine that is doing the accessing. It's counter-intuitive for another machine to use a "local" setting for a different machine, but it works, It's that simple -- why can't Microsoft just document that and tell us?!! There is so much frustration about this all across the WWW.
Here's how to make the setting:
1. Open Control Panel.
2. Click on Administrative Tools, then Computer Management.
3. In the left panel, open Local Users and Groups.
4. Open the Users folder which appears.
5. In the menu at the top, click Action, and the New User in the menu.
6. In the New User box that appears, fill out the Username and Password fields. Optionally, fill out the Full Name and Description fields - they aren't necessary.
7. Uncheck "User must change password at next logon. Put check these two boxes: "User cannot change password" and "Password never expires."
If you ever want to deny access, either go there again and tick the "Account is disabled" box, or just delete the user account.