Windows 11 24H2 Breaks File Sharing
Creation date: 21/02/2025 10:47
Updated: 20/08/2025 16:38
Windows 11 24H2 breaks access to network shares which use guest logins, because Microsoft have decided to disable guest logins by default. This can be re-enabled easily:
- Open the Run window (Win + R) and type gpedit.msc to open the Local Group Policy Editor.
- Navigate to Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Network > Lanman Workstation and select Enable insecure guest logons.
- Enable it, click OK and exit Group Policy Editor.
You can also do the above through PowerShell (preferred method from 08/2025 onwards):
- Right click on the Start menu and go to Terminal (Admin).
- Enter the following command:
set-SmbClientConfiguration -EnableInsecureGuestLogons $true -Force
More recently (05/2025 onwards), fresh Windows 11 24H2 installations seem to require SMB connections to have a security signature. This causes problems when making connections to Samba shares on Linux. You need to change the value of RequireSecuritySignature through PowerShell:
- Right click on the Start menu and go to Terminal (Admin).
- Enter the following command:
set-SmbClientConfiguration -RequireSecuritySignature $false -Force - You can check the full SMB configuration with the following command:
get-SmbClientConfiguration