Takes too long to discover other PC's on network!

Hi Everybody


I have 4 PC's on my wired home network - one of them is running Windows 7 Professional - 64 bit O/S whilst all the others are running on Windows XP Professional 32 bit O/S. All these PC's are on the Work Group called 'Home'

All the partitions of the physical HDD on all these PC's are shared with the exception of the 'C:\' partition of these PC - as I only store programs on the 'C:\' drive partitions of the computers, hence I see no need to share them across the home network.

I have noticed that on all the PC's running XP, the other computers become visible almost instantly in Windows Explorer but on the PC running Windows 7, it takes far too long (sometimes just doesn't even see them) to discover the other PC's on the network. Network Discovery and File Sharing settings have been set to 'on' on this PC running Windows 7.

Its very annoying. Is there anything I am missing here?

Further, how do you search for a PC on a network on Windows 7 as you do on Windows XP from within Explorer? I am able to search for a computer on a network in XP very easily simply by right clicking on Network Places and going on 'Search for Computers' and then type in the name of the PC I am looking for - how do I do the same in Windows 7 Explorer?



Best regards



Deepak

I think you'll find it much quicker to use UNC to navigate to network shared directories and files:

\\server\shared directory\filename

In any Explorer window, click on an empty space in the address bar - the current address is then highlighted. Type or paste in the address of a shared directory (or file) on another network computer, for instance \\DK-pc\Computer Audio\Winamp plugins Then click on the go button (or hit Enter). If you have autosuggest enabled, this address will remain in the dropdown list reached by the little down arrow button at the right of the address bar, and that will always be the quickest way to get there.

The "Network" desktop or Start menu shortcut uses the antiquated "Computer Browser" service to find available network computers, and can be much slower, especially right after the computer is turned on. This service identifies one pc on the network as "Master browser" and it works best when it is on automatic on just that computer (your main computer), and disabled on the others. (but if you end up with no Computer Browser service running on the network, the "Network" shortcut will fail.). But using UNC is always quick and reliable.

Hi debugged

Thanks for your response.

I had heard about this UNC thing but I am not sure how to use it. How do I know what is my server name (I only know the name of my work group) and how can I get access to it in the following scenario :-

If the work group name is 'MsHome', the PC running Windows 7 is named 'MainPC' and the others are named 'AratiPC', 'Fileserver' and 'DeepakAgarwal' and if I am trying to reach say file with name "text.doc" which resides on the 'D:\' on the 'AratiPC' from the 'MainPC' could you please advise as to what do I need to type in the Explorer address bar using the UNC nomencleture to access that file or at least that drive on that PC?




Best regards


Deepak

It would be \\AratiPC\the-name-you-gave-the-D:drive-when-you-shared-it\text.doc, possibly \\AratiPC\D\text.doc

Are you sure you shared the whole drive already?
In the drive you want to share, right-click > properties >sharing > advanced button: tick the box to "share this folder". Then it just names it by its plain drive letter, but I would give it a more descriptive name. Then click Apply. If you want, click the Permissions button to change it from Read only, then OK. Now it shows you the UNC path to use under "Network path" on the Sharing dialog window.

Hi Debugged


Thanks for your help. That works.



Deepak