Share via

Accessing public shares on Windows 10 Home without a password

Question

Thursday, October 29, 2015 6:38 PM | 2 votes

I have a Windows 10 Home machine with a public share which I want to make available without a password (it's a mixed OS environment, with some machines still running Windows 7). I've shared the folder with Everyone and enabled Network File and Folder Sharing. The Sharing tab on the folder properties says that the folder is being shared. I also have the following settings in advanced sharing settings:

  • Network discovery on
  • File and printer sharing on
  • Publish folder sharing on
  • Password-protected sharing off

I can see the folder when browsing from another machine (Windows 7), but when trying to access it I'm being asked for login and password. I've looked for answers on the internet and saw other people having the same issue, but the only answer I found was specific to Windows 10 Pro, as it changed group security settings using gpedit.msc. Windows 10 Home doesn't have that utility, so how do I share a folder from Windows 10 Home?

All replies (11)

Thursday, November 12, 2015 8:05 PM âś…Answered | 3 votes

I have Windows 10 Home now as a test machine. No share options no secpol, so same as you. My share did work with Everyone and passwords off. But turning off my Guest account made it prompt for username password.

So right click start choose Command Prompt (Admin) Type;

net users guest

The sixth line down shows Account active and Yes or No, can you check that as good to know before trying

net users guest /active:yes

So was it active no, and if so did setting it to yes help?

Saturday, October 31, 2015 1:00 PM | 1 vote

Hi,

You can try to add credentials in Credential manager to save the login account and password like below on your Windows 7 computer:

Control Panel-User Accounts-Credential Manager-Windows Credential-Add a Windows Credential

Please remember to mark the replies as answers if they help, and unmark the answers if they provide no help. If you have feedback for TechNet Support, contact [email protected].

Monday, November 9, 2015 10:36 PM | 1 vote

Hi Kate,

I'm not sure if this counts as a satisfactory answer. You are essentially asking me to go round everyone's PC in the office and enter my password into their credentials database. Firstly, I don't find this a secure policy, nor is it scalable or manageable. Are you saying that Windows no longer supports sharing network resources (e.g. printers!) anonymously? If so, this should be front-page news.

And just out of interest, what credentials should I enter if my account is an MS account with two-factor authentication enabled?

Monday, November 9, 2015 11:49 PM

For a folder share have you got Everyone on the Security (file permission) tab as well? For me setting up a share (with Password-protected sharing off) with Everyone on share permission and with Everyone with file permission to the folder being shared I can access that without a password.

That can be checked with Shares under Computer Management (right click start choose Computer Management, expand Shared Folders then Shares. Right click the share and Properties, check the Share Permissions and the Security tab, is Everyone listed with the access you want to give)

Tuesday, November 10, 2015 5:24 PM

I'm afraid the Computer Management app doesn't give me the option to show properties of a share. I can only see Open, Refresh and Help. However, I confirm that the share has read, execute and browse permissions enabled for Everyone, both in security permissions and share permissions.

Perhaps I should mention that the share was accessible when I first upgraded from Windows 7 to 10. I only needed to disable password-protected sharing to make it work. However, I then did a clean install, as I was moving the OS to an SSD drive. This is when the problem occurred.

Tuesday, November 10, 2015 8:33 PM

Well I am at a loss as to why you only get Open, Refresh and Help when right clicking the share under Computer Management > Shared Folders > Shares. Are the shares names expected showing under shares?

As a test can you try setting up a new folder, and share that with Everyone. Does that work? Once a new test folder is created right click the folder Share with > Specific people... Add Everyone in the File Sharing screen (that will add it to the share and file permissions). Does that share work can people access it? Can you view the properties of the that share with Computer Management?

Tuesday, November 10, 2015 10:52 PM

Same thing happens on the newly created folder. And yes, the shares show up under Computer Management > Shared Folders > Shares. And no, you still can't view their properties in the app. I don't think it's relevant though, as you can access these properties from Windows Explorer. Also, the other machines can't even see the share; they ask for a password as soon as you try to browse my machine, so it may not be even the share's properties that's the issue.

I've tried everything you've suggested and more. The most promising clue I found was in this thread. It suggests that it's a problem with security group configuration, which unfortunately I can't change once I upgraded to Windows 10 Home, even though it was possible in Windows 7 Home Premium that I had before. It would also explain why it worked immediately after the upgrade (the security groups were inherited from Windows 7), but not after a clean install (security groups were reset).

If this is the case then I'm feeling put out by the whole "jump on the Windows 10" bandwagon, as anonymous network shares are a big deal for me.

Tuesday, November 10, 2015 11:12 PM

Thank you for the update.

The group policy settings the stackoverflow thread talk about are part of the Local Security Policy. If you run secpol.msc (or search start for secpol and open the Local Security Policy). Expand Local Policies > Security Options that is what the group policy changes, the setting I believe they are referring to is Accounts: Guest accounts status.

Give that a try hopefully that works for you (I do not have that set on my admittedly Window 10 Pro system). The guest account can also be enabled in Computer Management.

I'll download Windows 10 Home and look at that (will take some time)

Thursday, November 12, 2015 7:13 PM

I'm afraid there is no secpol.msc on my machine. Neighter the search tool or the run dialog can find it :(

Home edition again? How do I enable the guest account, btw? Sounds like it's worth a try.

Friday, November 13, 2015 8:46 PM | 2 votes

So, a weird thing happened. I ran "net users guest" and got "Yes" for "Account active", but I ran "net users guest /active:yes" anyway. Initially it didn't help, i.e. the other machine was still asking for credentials. But then I entered my username without a password and it accepted it. I then asked a co-worker to try it from his Windows 7 machine and he got straight in, without even entering a user name.

So it seems to work now; I can share files and the printer. Can't say I'm 100% confident it was the guest account, but I'm happy that it works. Thanks a lot for you help!

Saturday, November 23, 2019 3:34 AM

I had a similar issue accessing Windows 10 shared folders.
I wanted to share folders across PC's in a home network.
Guest access did not work.
Adding a global share did not work either, nor did turning off password protected sharing in network sharing under "all networks"

I finally went in through computer management on the target pc, and added the user (name) and password I was logged in under on the host to the target pc, then added it to the share permissions of the folder in question.
While I thought that should have been enough, it wasn't until I went in through the security tab and added the newly created user to the folder object security permissions that I finally got access.

I don't recall it being this difficult...