I just completed a clean windows 11 install. For various reasons, this is my first clean windows install in many years, and definitely my first windows 11 install. For at least 10 years, I've been riding the same original install, cloning it from HDD to SATA SSD, then to NVME SSD and finally to larger SSDs. The original install may have been Windows 7 and of course a years or so back I upgraded in place from 10 to 11. I say this just to make it clear that I don't have recent experience with setting up a new windows install.

So far the new install has gone well except for when I try and connect to my unraid server using windows explorer. I can see the server in the Network section of explorer, but when I try to open it it fails saying 'Windows cannot access \\SERVER. When I click diagnose, it returns error code 0x80070035 and 'The network path was not found." I googled the error and it suggested disabled File and Printer Sharing, improper network configuration, or SMB 1.0 protocol issues. F&P Sharing is enabled, improper network config is less than enlightening so that leaves SMBV1. I checked SMB settings in unraid and did not see this as an option. I also saw references to SMBV1 being insecure so I hope that isn't my solution.

Of course the Microsoft AI added its two cents, but the references were generally very old so even implementing what I could find was difficult due to new menu structures.

One thing is interesting is that I was able to access the server, enter credentials and select a sub-folder from within my EaseUS backup software. This success did not carry over to general file access using windows explorer.

Regarding my network setup as a whole, there's nothing crazy going on. Several months back I bought a new laptop and I didn't have to do anything special to get it to connect to my unraid shares. I have no idea what is different with this one.

I have Windows 11 Home (Version 25H2) installed.

Any ideas on what to change would be appreciated.

unbucket-diagnostics-20260216-0909.zip

You aren't the first.

Can you access it via the IP ?

\\192.168.1.30\mdrive

which is my UNRAID IP address\sharename

try deleting the entries in Windows Credentials if you have some wrong ones.

If you add a Windows credential .... this is the information you need to supply.

make sure the login and password match up with the UNRAID user information.

the easiest way to get Windows Networking to work is to use your Windows Login username.

Is your windows 11 log in a Microsoft account ? or a local account ?

If you type Windows Key + e (explorer) and type: Network (and hit enter) ... does the name of the UNRAID show up ?

Edited February 17Feb 17 by digitaldoctor

When I attempt to access shares using the IP address, I get exactly the same result.

I didn't think it was the problem but I also wiped my credentials clean. This is a new clean install so I didn't have many. This is not an issue of me entering the wrong login info - I'm not even given the chance to try and login.

My windows login is a MS account.

My unraid server does show up under NETWORK in Explorer, but when I click on it I immediately get the network error. What's really weird is that if I browse for a folder in my backup software, I can select the server, login, and navigate to a share.

I did more digging, and I found out that this is not the first time this has happened to me. When I first built my unraid server back in 2018, I could not connect from one of my 3 computers. (Link to relevant 2018 forum post.) Apparently after much searching I discovered a post that led me to discover that windows was apparently checking to see if my shares were secure or guest. At the time I had only created one share and it was public. The computer that could not connect just happened to be a windows pro machine that required me to change a registry key to allow guest access. I changed the key and my problem was solved. Interestingly, when I checked that computer's registry tonight, it was still on that key. Apparently in 7-1/2 years later, I have not had the need for any other edits. There was also a potentially related key on my windows home machines "AuditSmbAccess" that was already set to 0, which may have contributed to them working.

I tried adding both registry keys from 2018 to the new machine but they did not help. Apparently that was a fix for a temporary problem. It seems the keys have no bearing on the current problem. I checked a slightly newer laptop for confirmation. Neither key exists on the laptop but it has no problems accessing the unraid shares.

If you are using WIndows 11 24H2 or newer see https://forums.unraid.net/topic/177975-formatted-my-pc-and-installed-fresh-windows-11-now-cant-access-smb-shares/?do=findComment&comment=1478526

For a one-and-done solution, see this post and the next two:

https://forums.unraid.net/topic/191221-some-musings-on-smb-and-samba-and-unraid-and-windows/#findComment-1561581

2 hours ago, Frank1940 said:

For a one-and-done solution, see this post and the next two:

https://forums.unraid.net/topic/191221-some-musings-on-smb-and-samba-and-unraid-and-windows/#findComment-1561581

Adding my credentials manually seems to have worked. I've never done this before, I've always clicked to access a network resource, waited till the login box opened, then entered my credentials and checking for them to be saved.

For anyone the reads this in the future, it does not need to be specifically "smbuser" as the forum post seems to say. I just added my normal login for my server as a windows credential and it worked.

1 hour ago, jkBuckethead said:

For anyone the reads this in the future, it does not need to be specifically "smbuser" as the forum post seems to say. I just added my normal login for my server as a windows credential and it worked.

Thanks for this. I updated the post to indicate that the user name does not have to "smbuser".