How to share any folder without password in Windows 8/10 in a home network if a Microsoft account is involved?

Question

My question is: How to set up file sharing correctly, in a home network, with Windows 8/10, so sharing any folder with "Everyone" (File Explorer->Right click on folder->Properties->Sharing->AdvancedSharing->Share this folder) actually shares the folder with everyone, without password, even with Microsoft accounts?

Before you answer, please read on, because the trivial solution does not work if Microsoft accounts are involved.

I have a home network, with Windows 8.1 and Windows 10 machines, all in the same Workgroup. No Homegroup. I want to be able to share individual folders on the network, by setting them to shared through File Explorer. In Windows 7 and Vista, I just go to Network and Sharing Center, enable file and printer sharing, disable password protected sharing, and it all works. In Windows 10 and Windows 8, the same still works, but only if both machines use local accounts. As soon as one of the machines - either the one accessing the files or the one sharing them - uses a Microsoft account, it is no longer possible to access any files or folders on the other machines. Specifically, if the machine with the Microsoft account tries to access the machine with the local account, it will prompt for a username and password, and access will fail unless username and password of an actual user on the target machine are provided. Changing the Microsoft account to a local account immediately fixes the problem, with no other configuration changes.

This problem is real, and I've reproduced it on several machines, had friends encounter the same problem, and I've found several reports of other users with the same issue, but no solution. The problem seems to be the same in Windows 8 and in Windows 10.

Successfully implemented workarounds (not solutions):

1. Store the usernames/passwords to the other machines in the Credential Manager and give up the idea of sharing without password. Best use a common account for access*.
2. Don't use Microsoft accounts.

Solution 1

To explain the problem :

On Window 8.1, and presumably Windows 8, when using a Microsoft account to login to Windows, the default user-name when you make a network connection is MicrosoftAccount\<live_id_username>, instead of the login <computer_name>\<username> as in previous versions of Windows.

This MicrosoftAccount form is likely to cause a login failure on any server that is not using a Microsoft account, due to the strict way that Microsoft/Local accounts are implemented in Windows 8/8.1.

I have not been able to find a way of forcing Windows 8/8.1 to use the old format of computer-name\user-name, unless with one of the workarounds you have listed in your post. Probably this problem needs to be addressed by Microsoft itself.

I have tested and this is still true in Windows 10, so don't expect any improvement. Unfortunately, this is just the way that Microsoft/Local accounts were implemented.

Solution 2

I managed to share folders without passwords in Windows 10 with Microsoft Accounts by following this guide: http://www.howtogeek.com/126214/how-to-create-network-file-shares-with-no-passwords-in-windows-8/

I publish here in order to prevent link rot:

1. Open Network and Sharing Center
2. Then click on the Change advanced sharing settings Link in the left hand panel.
3. Now expand the All Networks section.
4. Finally switch the radial button to the Turn off password protected sharing setting and click Save changes.
5. It works!

I did not try this extensively (for example if you need to have a password protected share instead), as all the shares in my LAN don't need to be password protected, and since there's no wifi, I know that i'm the only one to access the share. But I think, if it disable all the passwords, it will still work with NTFS access permissions

Comments

[I say Reinstate Monica]

Have you tried granting the ANONYMOUS LOGON identity permission to your shared folder?

[Peter]

Not specifically, but 'everyone' does include 'anonymous logon' by default. I'll try when I'm home but don't expect it to make a difference.

[I say Reinstate Monica]

No, starting with Windows XP the Anonymous Logon identity has been removed from the Everyone group.

[I say Reinstate Monica]

Any luck? Also, is there a particular reason you aren't using a Homegroup? The last forum post here suggests that permits password-less sharing when Microsoft accounts are in use.

[Peter]

I have since tried allowing the anonymous logon on the machine with microsoft account, no luck accessing it from a machine without. I'm not using a homegroup because machines and networks change(e.g. LAN party), and setting the homegroup up time and time again is too annoying to consider.

[Chuck Claunch]

This has annoyed me for a long time. Thanks for posting the workarounds. I just wanted to add that simply creating local accounts just for sharing is much more ideal of a solution for me. I'd rather not give a Microsoft "cloud" account local access to my network file shares.

[Ejaz]

I can't recall a time, using any windows version, when I shared a folder on one machine and was able to access it over LAN without any issues. There is always some sht going on, be it domain; workgroup; or this permissions sht... come on already.

[robross0606]

And with the latest Windows 10 update, Microsoft has broken this AGAIN. Now, it won't work with local accounts either. Why are they waging war against anonymous shares? Some people WANT them!!!

[SnakE]

Another workaround is to specify "everyone" as the user name and an empty password when presented with the credentials dialog. This worked for me when I opened a directory shared by a Windows 10 machine with Microsoft account on a Windows 10 machine with a local account.

[harrymc]

I have since duplicated the problem with Windows 10 and have tried every workaround mentioned on the Web, to no avail. I can see that the prompt dialog has the Windows 10 computer itself as the domain, and the only way to change this is to enter <computer-name>\<username> in the dialog. I still don't know, as in my answer, any other solution than the workarounds you have listed in your post. You could raise this issue in the Windows 10 feedback channel.

[Peter]

Since I asked the question, 10 months have passed and there have been 15000+ views. Nobody knew how to fix this, so I'm marking this as the answer, to acknowledge that network sharing is partially broken in Windows 8 and 10.

[Violet Giraffe]

I have a problem with sharing my local folder (Windows 10) with another Windows 10 PC. But that other Win 10 PC has Microsoft account, and I can access its share without password. I cannot confirm your conclusions.

[harrymc]

@VioletGiraffe: Windows can remember a login certificate that you once used.

[Violet Giraffe]

I don't know what's login certificate, but I have just installed fresh Win 10 from scratch and opened the share from another Win 10 no problem.

[Saeed Neamati]

I use my Microsoft account to log into my Windows. Yet when I use whoami and command line, I get the <computer_name>\<user_name> format. Are you sure about MicrosoftAccount\<live_id_username> format?

[harrymc]

@SaeedNeamati: Too many variables here for me to answer. The real test is whether your computer can share a folder with one that uses a local account. This answer also dates from a year ago, so it would be interesting to see if something has changed.

[Peter]

This is the exact solution that the question says doesn't work, except this one forgets to mention that you also need to enable file and printer sharing in the same window. I just verified on some machines to be sure this is still the case: Accessing a shared folder on a machine with microsoft account from a machine with local account still does not work this way, without some form of additional shared credentials - even with the latest patches of windows 10 on both machines.

[Peter]

Just tried again, still not working Nov 25 2015.

[Peter]

@VioletGiraffe If both machines use a Microsoft account, we are not talking about the same problem.

[Magnetic_dud]

For me it works. Shared a folder on Win10 with a Microsoft account and "everyone" permissions, it can be accessed from anyone without a password (Tested on XP-7-8-10)

[cremor]

@Magnetic_dud The problem is the other way around. If the current user is a Microsoft account, it can't access shares on other Win10 machines. Relog to a local account and the share on the other machine is suddenly accessible.

[Joe Codeswell user601770]

this worked for me between win 10 & win xp. thanks.

[Syakur Rahman]

Still not working on Windows 10 Anniversary update

[Kyslik]

This did not work for me on win 10 & win xp. :( I am guessing, because Windows 10 disabled GUEST account, and can not be enabled no more.

[candied_orange]

This does not work for me... unless I use C:\Users\Public\Downloads\. That works fine. Other folders fail. There seems to be a step missing from the HowToGeek instructions to enable other folders.

[I say Reinstate Monica]

You need to grant the Everyone identify permissions to the folders you have shared. Further, if you want users to be able to modify folders over the network, you need to edit the Share permissions and make sure 'Everyone' has Full Control.

[fcm]

Works fine on w10 but not on servers :)