My Network Places (formerly Network Neighborhood) is the
network browser
A network browser is a tool used to browse a computer network. An example of this is My Network Places (or ''Network Neighborhood'' in earlier versions of Microsoft Windows). An actual program called Network Browser is offered in Mac OS 9
Ma ...
feature in
Windows Explorer
File Explorer, previously known as Windows Explorer, is a file manager application that is included with releases of the Microsoft Windows operating system from Windows 95 onwards. It provides a graphical user interface for accessing the file ...
. It was first introduced in
Windows 95
Windows 95 is a consumer-oriented operating system developed by Microsoft as part of its Windows 9x family of operating systems. The first operating system in the 9x family, it is the successor to Windows 3.1x, and was released to manufacturi ...
and
Windows NT 4.0
Windows NT 4.0 is a major release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft and oriented towards businesses. It is the direct successor to Windows NT 3.51, which was released to manufacturing on July 31, 1996, and then to retai ...
and was renamed My Network Places in
Windows 2000
Windows 2000 is a major release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft and oriented towards businesses. It was the direct successor to Windows NT 4.0, and was released to manufacturing on December 15, 1999, and was officially ...
and later.
My Network Places maintains an automatically updated history of computers which the user has accessed before, by default placed in a folder called , found in the user's
user profile
A user profile is a collection of settings and information associated with a user. It contains critical information that is used to identify an individual, such as their name, age, portrait photograph and individual characteristics such as ...
. This default location can be changed by modifying the pair of
registry entries found under the registry keys and . The feature also allows enumerating all computers on the local network that support the
Server Message Block
Server Message Block (SMB) is a communication protocol originally developed in 1983 by Barry A. Feigenbaum at IBM and intended to provide shared access to files and printers across nodes on a network of systems running IBM's OS/2. It also provide ...
(SMB) protocol and are open to discovery.
In a
workgroup of fewer than 32 computers,
[Windows XP help file, "My Network Places overview"] the list of network destinations in My Network Places is generated by one of the computers on the network, which has been designated "Browse Master" (sometimes called "master browser"). The Browse Master is elected by system strength. Sometimes when similar systems are connected to a network, there might be a conflict between Browse Masters with unexpected consequences, such as the disappearance of the list altogether or some system becoming unreachable. A system can be forced to decline Browse Master status by disabling the
Browser service Browser service or Computer Browser Service is a feature of Microsoft Windows to let users easily browse and locate shared resources in neighboring computers. This is done by aggregating the information in a single computer "Browse Master" (or "Mast ...
and rebooting.
[ ] In a workgroup of 32 computers or more, the shortcuts are created automatically when the user opens a shared network resource, such as a printer or shared folder.
Starting with
Windows Vista
Windows Vista is a major release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft. It was the direct successor to Windows XP, which was released five years before, at the time being the longest time span between successive releases of ...
, My Network Places is removed in favor of an integrated "Network" node in Windows Explorer. This node can only enumerate network computers but can do so via
WS-Discovery
Web Services Dynamic Discovery (WS-Discovery) is a technical specification that defines a multicast discovery protocol to locate services on a local network. It operates over TCP and UDP port 3702 and uses IP multicast address or . As the name s ...
and
UPnP protocols, in addition to SMB.
See also
*
Special folder
On Microsoft Windows, a special folder is a folder that is presented to the user through an interface as an abstract concept instead of an absolute folder path. (The synonymous term shell folder is sometimes used instead.) Special folders make ...
References
External links
SecurityFriday: Hazard of "My Network Places" on Windows XP
Browsers
Windows communication and services
File system directories
{{Windows-stub