Network Discovery not working and how to fix it

In our previous guide, we have gone through the process of installing a network printer and having it shared across the network. It is certainly possible to encounter some errors along the way, some more difficult than others to resolve. One of these errors include Network Discovery not activating when trying to enable it through the “Network and Sharing Center” section of the Control Panel.

Usually its the primary reason why this computer isn’t being displayed on other computers through the network. In order to resolve this particular issue, we will need to enable some services that may have been disabled by default or by another program.

Open up Control Panel if you haven’t already. At the top right, make sure “View by:” is set to “Large icons”.

You should see the option “Administrative Tools”, go ahead and click on that. You will be taken to a section with a set of administration programs.

Towards the bottom, look for the program “Services” and double-click to open. Services are “Programs” defined to always run in the background. You can enable or disable them, and run at Windows startup automatically.

We are now going to be looking for the following services in order for Network Discovery to function.

Right-click on “Function Discovery Provider Host” and click “Properties”.

You will now see a properties Window open with service configuration options. As you can see, the “Service status:” says “Stopped” which already tells us that this is the cause of our Network Discovery problem. Next to “Startup type:”, click on the drop-down menu and select “Automatic”. If your computer runs very slow due to hardware limitations, you can also use “Automatic (Delayed Start)”. Also go ahead and click the “Start” button and wait for it to complete.

Click “Apply”, and then “OK” to close. Rinse and repeat for the other affected service “Function Discovery Resource Publication”. Once that’s done, go ahead and see if you can find the affected computer by going to another one and running a network scan. At this point, you should be able to see it now. If not, restart the affected computer and try again. Also, make sure Network Discovery has been turned back on again through the “Network and Sharing Center” settings.

Hopefully this has helped resolved the issue. If not, feel free to send a message here.