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I have two Windows 10 PCs on a home network. They access each others files via Mapped Network Drives. This basically works very well. However frequently File Explorer often takes a LONG time to load (20 seconds and often much more, sometimes hanging for over a minute). The Downloads folder and "This PC" most regularly cause problems, saying "Working on it".

  • if I disconnect the Mapped Network Drives then File Explorer works very well
  • both PCs have the identical problem
  • I am using standard Windows firewall & anti-virus software, unchanged from defaults.
  • I get the problem with both PCs on, or just one on (and mapped drives unavailable)

It may be worth noting that when I try to map a network drive, I have to type in the other PC's name otherwise it won't appear in Browse. I have enabled Network Discovery on both PCs.

One of the PCs is often sleeping which seems to cause horrendous timeout problems, but the problem occurs when they are both awake too.

I have had this problem for a year or so at a guess.

Both PCs are otherwise very fast and responsive.

drb01
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2 Answers2

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Try the tested steps below. Check through all, although some settings may already be in place:

When connecting machines, Home Group is gone (security concerns), SMBv1 is gone, and Network Browsing at the Workstation level is sometimes not reliable. So I now use traditional sharing.

The following instructions enable folder sharing between two Windows 10 Machines.

Operating System Settings (Review the settings below or change as needed):

  1. Make sure Network Discovery and File / Print Sharing are enabled on both computers.

  2. Make sure password protected sharing is enabled both computers.

  3. Make sure both computers are in the same WORKGROUP.

  4. Make sure Wireless connections are Private, not Public.

Alternative to Domain DNS name recognition:

  1. If you wish to share by computer name instead of IP address, put an entry in the HOSTS file of the computer you are connecting from with the name and IP address of the main computer.

Setting up Sharing of folders:

  1. This next step depends on computer user names and passwords. If both computers use the same username and password, you can skip this step, restart both and test.

  2. If the user names are different, do the following:

  3. Make a username on the Main (Sharing) Computer that is the user name and password of the computer you are connecting from. Use this for permissions on the folders on Main (Sharing) Computer you wish to share. It is normally quite difficult to share USER folders because Home Group was removed and USER folders are heavily secured. Use a neutral folder for sharing.

  4. Again after all the above changes restart and test.

Testing the connection:

  1. On the computer you are connecting from, open a command prompt and type:

NET USE X: \name_of_sharing_computer\folder

  1. Press enter and then authenticate with the user name and password credentials.

If the connection attempt results in a numerical error, post that error back

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In my case the slowness described by the OP was caused by two devices having the same MAC address. I would also guess that it could be caused by two devices having the same IP address.

We had suffered this on our accounts network drive for several years, and as soon as we resolved the mac address conflict it was fixed.

To diagnose this use arp -a command in a command prompt, and try to spot two identical mac addresses. You could also paste the data into excel and sort it if there's a lot of them.

To fix it, you can edit the network card settings from device manager and give it a new "Network Address" - in the advanced tab of the properties window - just invent any valid mac address.

user2728841
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