I have a problem similar to
this one. Windows Firewall prevents File and Printer sharing from working
and Why does File and Printer Sharing keep turning off in Windows 7?
I cannot turn on Network Discovery.
This is Windows 7 Home Premium, x64. It's a Dell XPS 1340 and Windows came installed from the OEM.
This used to work. Now it doesn't. I don't know what has changed.
In windows Explorer, the UI looks like this:
When I click the yellow panel that says "Click to change…", the panel disappears, then immediately reappears, with exactly the same text.
If I go through the control panel "Network and Sharing Center" thing, the UI looks like this:
If I tick the box to "turn on network discovery", the "Save Changes" button becomes enabled. If I then click that button, the dialog box just closes, with no message or confirmation. Re-opening the same dialog box shows that Network Discovery has not been turned on.
If I turn off Windows Firewall, I can then turn on Network Discovery via either method.
The machine is connected to a wireless home network, via a router. The network is marked as "Home Network" in the Network and Sharing Center, which I think corresponds to the "Private" profile in Windows Firewall Advanced Settings app. (Confirm?)
The PC is not part of a domain, and has never been part of a domain.
The machine is not bridging any networks. There is a regular 100baseT connector but I have the network adapter for that disabled in Windows.
Something else that seems odd. Within Windows Firewall Advanced Settings, there are no predefined rules available. If I click the "New Rule…." Action on the action pane, the "Predefined" option is greyed out. like this:
In order to attempt to allow the network discovery protocols through on the private network, I hand-coded a bunch of rules, intending to allow the necessary UPnP and WDP protocols supporting network discovery. I copied them from a working Windows 7 Ultimate PC, running on the same network. This did not work. Even with the hand-coded rules, I still cannot turn on Network Discovery.
I looked on the interwebs, and the only solution that appears to work is a re-install of Windows. Seriously?
If I try
netsh advfirewall firewall set rule group="Network Discovery" new enable=Yes
…it says "No rules match the specified criteria"
EDIT:
by the way, these services are running.
DNS Client
Function Discovery Resource Publication
SSDP Discovery
UPnP Device Host
in any case, since it works with no firewall, I would assume all necessary services are present and running. The issue is a firewall thing, but I don't know how to diagnose further, or fix it.
Q1: Is there a way to definitively insure the correct holes are punched through the Windows Firewall to allow Network Discovery to function?
Q2: Should I expect the "predefined" firewall rules to be greyed out?
Q3: Why did this change?
Best Answer
This other question: What happened to my "Predefined rules" in Windows Firewall? How can I get them back?
...provided the solution.
The missing rules for Windows Firewall were the problem.
The hand-coded rules I tried to enter, as I described above, didn't cut the mustard. Surely I made mistakes in hand-entering everything.
But, when I restored the "predefined rules" that Windows ships with, and then enabled those predefined rules, Network Discovery began working again. Likewise File and Print Services.
I believe that someone had previously installed a security suite that pre-empted Windows Firewall, and also deleted the predefined rules for Windows Firewall. I don't know this for sure, I am only guessing. Or possibly it could have been a virus that removed the predefined rules. In any case, Windows Firewall had amnesia about its predefined rules. Restoring the predefined rules, and enabling them, allowed everything to work as expected.
I was not successful with the reg update. But I was successful going into the firewall advanced settings and I added predefined rules for file sharing and network discovery. Now the firewall is active and I can use the network.