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I have a home office with a workstation, and I just added another workstation and a laptop. All use windows10 professional and I use the same Microsoft account to login on all machines. I'm trying to set up a shared folder on each machine to replace the Homegroup.

Network Error

Windows cannot access \\ws1\shared

You do not have permission to access \\ws1\shared. 
Contact your network administrator to request access.

I can't get the sharing to work no matter what I allow on the share permissions or on the folder security.

Windows10 just removed homegroup, a feature I was just beginning to get some use out of.

I've set up a domain in the past, in an office setting. But I'd like to keep this simple and avoid using a domain controller.

I also want to avoid sharing on the "public network" as the laptop might be taken to other locations and other devices exist in my home.

Edit:

Just found out that sharing any folder outside of the user folder is working. No adjusting of permissions seems to work though for in the user folder

Ben L
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  • If you have a bit of time to spare, you would probably learn everything you need to know by reading these tutorials: Windows Networking: Sharing Files and Resources – Run5k May 25 '18 at 15:37
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    @Run5k I'm not a noob. I've been doing network sharing with windows since NT4. My question is about Microsoft accounts which I have only recently started using, shouldn't that be enough to authenticate as a user on both machines? – Ben L May 25 '18 at 16:53
  • Ben, I was simply trying to help. Much like you, I have been working as an IT professional for over 30 years, and in my experience those articles are still beneficial for my employees, even if they are rather "1337" or if they actually are a "n00b." That being said, yes, using a Microsoft account should work. I am utilizing a generic Workgroup on my home network with Windows 10 Pro machines, and I can gracefully navigate to my own user folder on each machine. The key is to configure your settings within the Network and Sharing Center in the Change advanced sharing settings interface. – Run5k May 25 '18 at 19:48
  • Here are three screenshots of the Advanced sharing settings interface from a Windows 10 Professional machine on my home network: the Private network profile, the Public network profile, and the All Networks profile. Notice that both network discovery as well as file and printer sharing are turned on within the Private network profile, but they are turned off for the Public network profile. I also configured Turn on password protected sharing for all networks. – Run5k May 26 '18 at 01:22
  • The bottom line is that if you configure your home workgroup in a similar fashion to mine, it will still be safe in both Public and Private network profile configurations. At the same time, when you are on your private home workgroup, you should be able to gracefully access your Microsoft account user folder hierarchy between all three machines without any additional sharing or NTFS permissions modifications. You can navigate via File Explorer and/or a UNC path and create a pair of shortcuts to the other two machines for easy access. – Run5k May 26 '18 at 01:31
  • We are always glad to help, but It has been more than a week since we heard from you. Have you made any progress? – Run5k Jun 04 '18 at 12:48
  • No. I had to share a folder outside of my user profile. – Ben L Jun 04 '18 at 14:46
  • Understood, but as I described within my previous three comments, you shouldn't need to manually configure sharing something within your profile folder hierarchy. Once everything is setup as I described, you should be able to reach your profile folder via a UNC path, and create a shortcut to it accordingly. – Run5k Jun 04 '18 at 14:51
  • Ben, you asked a rather popular question based upon several up-votes as well as being highlighted in the weekly Super User Newsletter e-mail. The bottom line is that my home network is essentially the same as yours, and I have network shares utilizing Microsoft accounts that are working perfectly. Personally, I always try to ensure that I follow-up within the questions where I am contributing so that I don't inadvertently abandon the author. However, your feedback has been nominal. Do you still want to determine the root cause of your problem? – Run5k Jun 06 '18 at 21:16
  • The only thing I can do is refine the question, because it's not getting fixed with anything I have time to try. So if the question is "can ms account be used to share accross home network", this can be answered. If the question is what voodoo is not allowing my account folders to share after homegroup was depricated, I don't have an answer. – Ben L Jun 07 '18 at 15:48
  • As I said previously (and I described in this answer yesterday), my home network is already utilizing exactly what you desire: Microsoft accounts accessing shares on a home network comprised of Windows 10 Pro computers. Unless there are other extraneous factors affecting networks shares such as your security software or router configuration, if you setup your WORKGROUP in the manner that I described it should work. My wife has shortcuts to her user profile folder hierarchy on the other machines pinned to her desktop, and everything works smoothly. – Run5k Jun 07 '18 at 15:57
  • Possible duplicate of How to configure sharing on a small Windows 10 network since HomeGroup is gone? – Run5k Jun 11 '18 at 18:40
  • "can ms account be used to share across home network" The simple answer is yes. I have been using that configuration on my home network for three years, and it works perfectly. We are always glad to help, but realistically you probably should have accepted the Possible duplicate that I proposed. This entire scenario is a relatively simple tech solution, so when/if you want to resolve it simply "@Run5k" me and I will be happy to chime-in (even without an official answer). – Run5k Jul 06 '18 at 19:56

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