Awesome — thanks for posting your fix and the link; that’s exactly the kind of clear follow‑up that helps others.
Quick recap (for anyone reading)
- Root cause: the Dell was using a Microsoft account to sign-in while the client was trying to authenticate using a local account — SMB auth failed because the account names didn’t match.
- Fix: convert the Dell sign‑in to a local account (or create matching local accounts on both machines), then map the share. That’s the clean, secure approach for workgroup SMB.
If you want one more tidy step, here are the small cleanup / revert actions and a convenient persistent‑map recipe you can use now (copy/paste). Run the relevant block on the machine indicated in an elevated shell.
A — Revert any insecure settings you may have enabled (run on each machine as Admin)
On DELL‑LAPTOP (PowerShell Admin):
remove temporary SMB share if you created it
if (Get-SmbShare -Name 'PublicShare' -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue) { Remove-SmbShare -Name 'PublicShare' -Force }
delete temp account if you created it
if ((net user shareuser) -ne $null) { net user shareuser /delete }
remove entry from NullSessionShares if you added it
$regPath = 'HKLM:\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\LanmanServer\Parameters'
$current = (Get-ItemProperty -Path $regPath -Name NullSessionShares -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue).NullSessionShares
if ($current) {
$arr = @($current) | Where-Object { $_ -ne 'PublicShare' }
if ($arr.Length -gt 0) { Set-ItemProperty -Path $regPath -Name NullSessionShares -Value $arr } else { Remove-ItemProperty -Path $regPath -Name NullSessionShares -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue }
}
Restart-Service -Name LanmanServer -Force
On MAIN‑PC (Admin PowerShell / CMD):
remove saved credential (if used)
cmdkey /delete:192.168.1.71 2>$null
unset insecure guest auth if you enabled it
reg add "HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\LanmanWorkstation\Parameters" /v AllowInsecureGuestAuth /t REG_DWORD /d 0 /f
Restart-Service -Name LanmanWorkstation -Force
B — Create a persistent mapped drive (secure, using stored credentials)
On MAIN‑PC run (non‑elevated cmd or PowerShell in your normal user session):
rem store credential (replace PasswordHere and user if different)
cmdkey /add:192.168.1.71 /user
ELL-LAPTOP\your_local_user /pass
asswordHere
rem create persistent mapping
net use Z: \192.168.1.71\YourShare /persistent:yes
To remove mapping & saved credential later:
net use Z: /delete
cmdkey /delete:192.168.1.71
C — Final suggestions
- Keep the local account approach (matching username/password on both machines) for secure, reliable workgroup sharing.
- Make a fresh system image now (Clonezilla / Macrium) while everything is clean.
- Consider using OpenSSH/SFTP (WinSCP) if you want an encrypted alternative to SMB.
If you want I can:
- Paste the above two revert blocks as a single script file you can run (one per machine), or
- Walk you through setting up a permanent dedicated share account + credential manager entry step‑by‑step, or
- Convert your “UPDATE 8‑20‑25” post into a short solution summary for the thread.
Great job tracking this down and posting the fix. Want me to create the one‑click cleanup script for you now?
