Windows 10 1809 Networked PC tip

[Guest]

Thought I'd share my experience with Network shares under Windows 1809.

Some quick background, I use 3 PCs and two tablets devices (iPAD and Nexus) for my flight simulator setup, 1 main FS PC, 1 networked PC for weather management and audio/video capture, 1 networked PC for flight planning and tracking, iPAD for FMC and/or more weather/flight tracking, Nexus for live ATC.  Getting all these to work in harmony across wireless and wired networks can sometimes be tricky (sometimes I'm amazed it even works at all).

After running the Windows Update from 1803 to 1809, I could no longer see my other PC's on my network when using Explorer.  Shares were setup correctly and enabled, firewall exceptions all good, check all the needed services were running, but still no PCs showing on my network.  So a few days later and lots of research, the "temporary" solution I found was to run "Network Reset" (This is a built in Win10 feature).  Bingo, this worked, ran it on all my PCs and they are all seeing each other.

Thinking problem solved, a day or two later and the problem returned?  No updates were run, nothing I changed, puzzled?  So run Network Reset again on all my computers and problem solved again ... but 2 days later, problem comes back.  No idea what 1809 is doing, but obviously it seems to be resetting something "back" to a mode that no longer works.  Reported the issue to Microsoft but got the usual "it's you, not us" response and nothing really helpful to problem resolution or even how I can go about diagnostics.

Now keep in mind, "mapped" drives are still working, I can access my other computers with the manually entered drive maps.  So what's the problem then, right?  Well, the problem is that went I setup my software on these networked PC's then need to have a path specified to my main FS PC or each other.  In the places I needed to setup a path I couldn't, the mapped drives would not show and my other PCs would not show when I hit the Browse to bring up the File Open Dialog so I can navigate to the correct path.

I'm aware that "Run As Admin" on any application will prevent the display of "mapped" drives in that application since Mapped drives are actually created under a different "user" security context even if that user is "Admin" it's still not the same security context (or at least it's not the same to Win10 File Open Dialog).  So the recommended solution here is to NOT use "Run As Admin" for the application in question (in my case that is HiFi AS4, LittleNavMap, Navigraph, etc.) ... BUT, that solution didn't work, my mapped drives would still NOT show up, nor my networked PCs.

After more digging, I did finally came across a solution that worked with my mapped network drives regardless of the "Run As Admin" context:  

1.  RegEdit (right click run as admin)

2.  Navigate to: Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System

3. Add New DWORD (32) and call it "EnableLinkedConnections"

4. Set the EnableLinkedConnections value = 1

5. Reboot PC

There is clearly a bug in 1809, or maybe it's "by design".  Of course there maybe some security implications here but if you trust your home local network and it's setup with other correct security precautions and you don't use Torrents, then your risk will still be very low.  Hope this helps anyone that might have been struggling like me on 1809.

Cheers, Rob.

Edited December 26, 2018 by Guest

[TopGun33 124]

I just updated to 1809 and I am building a secondary rig with spares for weather and flight planning. That may save me quite a few hair.

Thank you very much Rob.

[jpf 14]

might be 'pro' version specific? there's been a lot of security updates from MS of late that try to mitigate malware attacks across networked devices. it's been a constant source of problems in the multi OS environment I work with as in 'it was working and now it doesn't' type.

[Adrian123 1,015]

Thanks Rob. Using Pro to talk to Home. PITA.. I too have been having a heck of a time with since that update. Had to do alot of security permissions. I'll give your suggestion a try. Despise W10 security coming from Win7 and dedicated flight computer.

Edited December 27, 2018 by Adrian123

[Psybear 23]

Interesting. On my 1809 system it was already there.

[Adrian123 1,015]

3 minutes ago, Psybear said:

Interesting. On my 1809 system it was already there.

Wasn't mine Home or Pro?

 

[Psybear 23]

Windows 10 Pro  1809  build 17763.195

[t-c 15]

I’m unable to fly in full window as my sim is tearing, and flashing, sadly my pc was updated with the 1809 over the weekend, and afterwards became unstable. 

I have two Titan Blacks in the rig, and have used DDU to completely uninstall the nvidia drivers, and fresh install but still just as bad.

[nbillo 3]

On 12/26/2018 at 10:56 PM, Rob Ainscough said:

Thought I'd share my experience with Network shares under Windows 1809.

Some quick background, I use 3 PCs and two tablets devices (iPAD and Nexus) for my flight simulator setup, 1 main FS PC, 1 networked PC for weather management and audio/video capture, 1 networked PC for flight planning and tracking, iPAD for FMC and/or more weather/flight tracking, Nexus for live ATC.  Getting all these to work in harmony across wireless and wired networks can sometimes be tricky (sometimes I'm amazed it even works at all).

After running the Windows Update from 1803 to 1809, I could no longer see my other PC's on my network when using Explorer.  Shares were setup correctly and enabled, firewall exceptions all good, check all the needed services were running, but still no PCs showing on my network.  So a few days later and lots of research, the "temporary" solution I found was to run "Network Reset" (This is a built in Win10 feature).  Bingo, this worked, ran it on all my PCs and they are all seeing each other.

Thinking problem solved, a day or two later and the problem returned?  No updates were run, nothing I changed, puzzled?  So run Network Reset again on all my computers and problem solved again ... but 2 days later, problem comes back.  No idea what 1809 is doing, but obviously it seems to be resetting something "back" to a mode that no longer works.  Reported the issue to Microsoft but got the usual "it's you, not us" response and nothing really helpful to problem resolution or even how I can go about diagnostics.

Now keep in mind, "mapped" drives are still working, I can access my other computers with the manually entered drive maps.  So what's the problem then, right?  Well, the problem is that went I setup my software on these networked PC's then need to have a path specified to my main FS PC or each other.  In the places I needed to setup a path I couldn't, the mapped drives would not show and my other PCs would not show when I hit the Browse to bring up the File Open Dialog so I can navigate to the correct path.

I'm aware that "Run As Admin" on any application will prevent the display of "mapped" drives in that application since Mapped drives are actually created under a different "user" security context even if that user is "Admin" it's still not the same security context (or at least it's not the same to Win10 File Open Dialog).  So the recommended solution here is to NOT use "Run As Admin" for the application in question (in my case that is HiFi AS4, LittleNavMap, Navigraph, etc.) ... BUT, that solution didn't work, my mapped drives would still NOT show up, nor my networked PCs.

After more digging, I did finally came across a solution that worked with my mapped network drives regardless of the "Run As Admin" context:  

1.  RegEdit (right click run as admin)

2.  Navigate to: Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System

3. Add New DWORD (32) and call it "EnableLinkedConnections"

4. Set the EnableLinkedConnections value = 1

5. Reboot PC

There is clearly a bug in 1809, or maybe it's "by design".  Of course there maybe some security implications here but if you trust your home local network and it's setup with other correct security precautions and you don't use Torrents, then your risk will still be very low.  Hope this helps anyone that might have been struggling like me on 1809.

Cheers, Rob.

Hi Rob,

I to have had many issues seeing my networked computers within Windows 10 explorer window, until I set this service to automatic and started it:

(Function Discovery Resource Publication) As soon as this was started, my networked PC's popped up in my explorer window. I've since found that enabling and running these services in auto should be set for a home networked system.

   - Function Discovery Provider Host

   - SSDP Discovery

   - UPnP Device Host

Hope it helps

Nigel

[jpf 14]

13 hours ago, t-c said:

I’m unable to fly in full window as my sim is tearing, and flashing,

try r-click on the P3D(?) icon, compatiblity, and turn 'disable full screen optimization' 'on' for a start. that or v-sync, triple-buffering and unlimited in P3D(?) options might help. I use either/or but not both 😉

[t-c 15]

Thanks jpf, I’ll boot my pc up in a bit and have another look 🙂

[Guest]

On 12/27/2018 at 7:40 PM, nbillo said:

I've since found that enabling and running these services in auto should be set for a home networked system.

   - Function Discovery Provider Host

   - SSDP Discovery

   - UPnP Device Host

Hi Nigel,

Yes that was part of my early setup/diagnosis, unfortunately that was short lived and didn't seem to "stick".  The registry entry I listed above is working for me in all cases on all my PC's.

Cheers, Rob.

[jlohrenz 133]

Rob,

Yep..I searched for hours to find that fix as well...I also updated all 5 of my sim PC's not only to 1809, but to the PRO version of windows. Now I can have it delay major version updates but up to a year...worth the price for the upgrade and prevents forced headaches like I felt when my PC's all update to 1803 on their own.

[t-c 15]

On 12/28/2018 at 12:37 PM, jpf said:

try r-click on the P3D(?) icon, compatiblity, and turn 'disable full screen optimization' 'on' for a start. that or v-sync, triple-buffering and unlimited in P3D(?) options might help. I use either/or but not both 😉

I’ve had to roll back from1809 as it totally screws P3DV4 in full screen

[jpf 14]

4 hours ago, t-c said:

I’ve had to roll back from1809 as it totally screws P3DV4 in full screen

it's never easy is it... ;( if you have the stomach for another go at some point then a complete uninstall/reinstall of the video driver (and sometimes sound driver too). I imagine you probably did this (but for others reading...)
I can't complain about 1809 myself but there's certainly a fair share of P3D users that have no luck with it.