Change Public network to Private Windows 11, re-enable file sharing
If you’ve changed your network recently you might find that your network is now set to Public. For me, this disabled file and printer sharing and basically cut my computer off from others that I used to connect to it. With Windows 11, of course everything changed and all the things I can find are outdated.
While there’re a ton of pieces out there that tell you how to set a WiFi network to private, here’s the quick and dirty for setting an ethernet to private and then enabling file and printer sharing, if it’s not already.
Step 1 – locate which network needs to be private. For me this *was* Network 4… did I take a screenshot of it before writing this article? No.
Step 2 – run PowerShell elevated (start, powershell, run as administrator)
Step 3 – type “Get-NetConnectionProfile” and press enter
Locate which network you’re looking at, in my case it was Network 4. Just imagine Network 4 says “public” because I’m not changing my network back to get a screenshot.
Step 4 – type Set-NetConnectionProfile -Name “Network 4” -NetworkCategory Private
Change ‘Network 4’ to whatever your connection was named. Voila, you now have it set to a private network.
Allow file and printer sharing
Start, type “windows security” click the right ne, choose Firewall and Network Protection (currently on the left hand side of the menu but it’ll be moved by the time I press post / you read this.) Chose Allow an app through firewall. Scroll down to file and printer sharing, make sure it’s selected for Private networks (you might have to press “change settings” in order to get to it.)
Done.
