Enlarge / Microsoft disabled SMB1 in newer Windows 11 Home versions.
Microsoft
Most Windows 11 preview builds focus on adding features, but sometimes Microsoft uses them to remove things. Users installing the latest Windows 11 Home Insider builds will find that support for the venerable SMB file sharing protocol version 1.0 is now disabled by default, which can break file sharing on older network storage devices. A post by Microsoft program manager Ned Pyle details the reasons behind the change and how it will affect users.
Microsoft has disabled SMB1 by default in other versions of Windows. Starting in 2017, the SMB1 server service was removed on all Windows versions, and the client service was disabled in Windows 10 Pro versions starting in 2018. The client in Windows Home comes last, Lyle wrote, because it will “cause consumer pain” for those still running very old devices who are least likely to understand why their new Windows 11 laptop won’t connect to their old network hard drive. “
SMB1 has long been superseded by newer, more secure protocol versions; SMB2 was introduced in 2007, and version 3.1.1 was added to Windows 10 in 2016. But old servers and appliances still occasionally use the original version – if a machine is old enough to rely on SMB1, it’s probably old enough to be interested in maintaining or upgrading it.
Currently, the SMB1 feature can still be installed manually by users and system administrators who need it, and if you’re using SMB1 on a PC upgraded to Windows 11, the upgrade will not disable the feature. The next phase of the transition will go a step further and completely remove the DLL files and drivers required for SMB1 support from the operating system. The company “will provide out-of-band, unsupported installation packages for organizations or users who still need SMB1 connectivity to older factory machines, medical equipment, consumer NAS, and more,” Pyle wrote.
Old Windows Icons / List image by Andrew Cunningham
