Two PCs, PC B sees PC A in network, PC A does not see PC B

Hi,
I have one desktop Windows 7 plus one laptop Windows 7, both x64

* The laptop always shows itself, and when connected to my LAN it shows all other computers. I take it with me, connect it everywhere, LAN at home, LAN in the office - always shows the network perfectly.

* The desktop PC never shows anything under Network in Explorer, it always was like this, regarless of other computers like Vista, XP or Win 7 on the network.

I have searched and tried almost everything:
Firewall turned off on both
No virus app on any
Network discovery turned on, both
Can ping both ways

What more can I make to have the desktop PC show the network?

-Ingvarai

Assuming both machines are in the same subnet and using the same name for the Workgroup, and barring any type of involvement with a third party anti virus or firewall, you should have no problems seeing other Workgroup machines.

If you can post the ipconfig/all from both machines I can check that they are in the same subnet. :)

Of course you could just set up a Homegroup but that doesn't really address the problem.

This link shows you how to check or change the Workgroup name if required.

Workgroup Name - View and Change

Ok, there has always been "something" with this particular machine. And I mean, with Explorer on this PC. Sometimes thr Favorites, Libraries and Computer icons animate forever, and I just have to reboot.

Ok, I somehow found a solution, but feel this wokaround is not satisfactory.

1) I type the address of one of the computers in the address field in explorer, like this:
\\192.168.0.1 and press Enter. What happens now, is that this particular PC shows up under Network in Explorer, and I can access the shared folders on the remote PC. I can continue doing so the the rest of the network. But I see the numbers only, no computer names.

2) I do the "Open Network and Sharing Center" from the tray, then click "See full map". All of a sudden, all remote PCs and the host machine (itself) are listed under Network in Explorer.

Now, (2) solved it. It is like it should be. But I am supposed to do this all the time??? For every Windows session? On the other machines, there is no need for this extra effort. I must obviously have started something by doing "See full map". A service? Discover network is turned on. Can it be that a certain service still is not started at boot time?
Any ideas about this are welcome! Especially if someone knows if there are some service(s) that I should check are tagged "Manual" when they should be "Automatic".

-Ingvarai

Hi again,
firstly - reinstalling the OP is no option, as I do not have an extra week to spend.. It is a very advanced machine with tons of apps installed, multi media, 3D, video, sound, the complete Adobe Creative Suite etc. etc.
The hard drives are ok (I have 4 of them, two SSD for the OP in RAID 0 , and two spinnings disks for my work also in RAID 0).

So - it has nothing to do with the hard drive.
I had this visurs attack, called "Windows 7 ativirus attack 2012".
Yes, I have installed the repair tools from Microsoft, and Kaspersky Antivirus, but have a feeliong not everything is ok.

So I would approch it this way:
What registry settings could possibly cause this?
What services are not started at boot time, that ought to run?

If soneone has any suggestions in this direction, it is much appreciated!

-Ingvar