Windows 10 File Sharing - How to Access the Share - DO NOT USE A PIN!

So, you have created a share on your Windows 10 machine and want to access it from another (Windows 10) computer.

Here is a big trap laid out by Microsoft: if you use a Microsoft account and a PIN to log into the sharing computer, this will never work!

You have to disable the PIN login before you can use the username and password to log into the samba share you created.

Or, you can switch to a local account and keep the PIN.

I like the latter solution better.

It took me ages to figure that out and I hope this short post saves you valuable time.

 

Note: if you are using a Microsoft account on the sharing computer, you can use the MS username (e. g. xxx@live.com) or the user name known in the OS itself - both will work, no prefix is required.

Note 2: even if you are using the same Microsoft account on both computers, Windows will treat them as separate accounts. You will be asked for your username and password when connecting to the share.

Note 3: you can use Credential Manager to set up combinations of machine/username/password to avoid being asked for credentials every time.