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.
See al ...
feature in
Windows Explorer. It was first introduced in
Windows 95
Windows 95 is a consumer-oriented operating system developed by Microsoft and the first of its Windows 9x family of operating systems, released to manufacturing on July 14, 1995, and generally to retail on August 24, 1995. Windows 95 merged ...
and
Windows NT 4.0 as Network Neighborhood, and was renamed My Network Places in
Windows 2000
Windows 2000 is a major release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft, targeting the server and business markets. It is the direct successor to Windows NT 4.0, and was Software release life cycle#Release to manufacturing (RT ...
and later, before being replaced in
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, released five years earlier, which was then the longest time span between successive releases of Microsoft W ...
.
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. 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 used to share files, printers, serial ports, and miscellaneous communications between nodes on a network. On Microsoft Windows, the SMB implementation consists of two vaguely named Windows ...
(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, 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 and
UPnP
Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) is a set of networking protocols on the Internet Protocol (IP) that permits networked devices, such as personal computers, printers, Gateway (telecommunications), Internet gateways, Wi-Fi access points and mobile de ...
protocols, in addition to SMB.
See also
*
Special folder
References
External links
SecurityFriday: Hazard of "My Network Places" on Windows XP
Browsers
Windows communication and services
File system directories
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