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Ours is a small office with 6 people, which is overkill for Windows Server. Instead, we use Windows Pro and utilise the public folder for sharing files. Shared files are from Windows specific apps such as accounting programs, etc...

Several times, after a Windows 10 Update, I've noticed windows has:

  • turned OFF Public Folder sharing
  • turned ON Password Protected Sharing

this results in the files not being shared. If I'm around it's trivial to mitigate these changes, but others aren't so IT literate

My question is, is there a better way to share files on Windows 10 Pro, which isn't affected by Updates?

For example, enable the guest account using the CMD prompt, set up the share manually and cross your fingers that the Windows update doesn't mess with it. This way presumably, it doesn't matter whether windows turns on/off public folders or password protected sharing.

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Public forder share in not a good idea; it is for this reason that Windows Update regularly "reset" this settings.

At the very least, you should create a dedicated user account (with a decent password) for sharing, and use it on the various client as the credentials (user/pass) to access the share.

Note that I am not advocating this kind of user/credential sharing; anyway, it is way better that a public shared folder.

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I would add a note. If the computer is used only for sharing I would maybe install a FreeNAS OS to share the file in a workgroup's mode, and make sure you configure a software RAID in the minimum to ensure the data integrity.

The learning step to administer a Linux OS is not easy if you are used to the Microsoft's world, but the FreeNAS offer webportal to configure the samba, so the learning step is easier.

Another option is even if a small office, did you thougth to have your file in the cloud ? like onedrive, dropbox or such service offer business plan, and would be a good way to have your worker be able to work from anywhere if the need arise.

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  • Sadly, its not possible to share the accounting files from a non-Windows OS. They stipulate it must be from Windows OS. Otherwise, this would've been my first choice. Sep 10, 2019 at 15:11

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