Shared Folders and Windows 10 November Update

[Chupacabraz]

Ever since "upgrading" to the November update of Windows 10, my shared folders do not work.  I had hoped that the upgrade to Fusion 8.1 would fix this but it has not.

Basically if I enable shared folders, such as Documents and Downloads, I can access them from the link on the desktop.  However, I do not get my Y: and Z: drives as I used to.  Also, when opening Explorer there is a hang of 30-60 seconds while it apparently tried to find these drives. 

If I disable sharing, Explorer is fast and never hangs. 

I have tried unisntalling/reinstalling the VMWare Tools but it makes no difference.  I have to leave Shared Folders disabled to have a usable VM. 

Any thoughts on how to fix this so that it works like it used to before the November update?

[galgano]

Hi Chupacabraz,

I've been dealing with the same issue.  I tried uninstalling VMWare Tools, rebooting, re-installing, rebooting ... rinse and repeat.  I've seen this behavior before when an update was applied to Windows 8 a few years ago.  I was never able to find a solution, but a subsequent update to the Windows operating system cleared it up.  That November update seems to be the culprit for me, as well.

I am open to any insights or suggestions.

HELP!

[wila · Accepted solution]

Hi,

Strange the uninstall - reboot - install VMware Tools worked flawless down here to fix a similar issue.

There's a couple of things you can try.

First check the registry that you do not have:

All you have to do is edit the registry

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\ SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\NetworkProvider\Order 

Name: ProviderOrder 

Type: REG_SZ 

Data: "RDPNP, LanmanWorkstation,webclient" 

It should have "vmhgfs" as the first option:

Data: "vmhgfs,RDPNP, LanmanWorkstation,webclient" 

Second, try recreating the shares.

Remove them, disable sharing, close the dialog for sharing then re-open the dialog and try sharing once more and add the old shares back.

Yet another thing you can do is to disable folder change event notification.

The side effect of this is you will have to press refresh in Windows explorer to see a change, it might stop the slowness of your explorer.

While I use this myself I do not recommend it for most users.

isolation.tools.hgfs.notify.enable = "FALSE" 

See also: http://kb.vmware.com/kb/2011360

Finally, I've also see the host guest file sharing slow down when there was a ton of files and antivirus actively scanning the file share.

At least disable scanning compressed files.

--

Wil

[galgano]

Hi Wil,

I made the changes to the registry, prepending "vmhgfs" in the ProviderOrder key, removed the shared, disabled Shared Folders, re-enabled Shared Folders, re-added the shares.  It seems like everything is back to normal.  Thank you for the suggestions.  They seem to have worked. 

Incidentally, I had already added that isolation.tools.hgfs.notify.enable = FALSE to my vmx file a few days ago.  That change may have contributed to the solution, as well.

Mark

[jwillard99]

This solved the issue for me, thanks. The ProviderOrder key was missing the 'vmhgfs' value in the list.

[_Royce_]

The registry change fixed it for me. I was going crazy trying to get this working.

[Chupacabraz]

Thank you Wila!  That fixed it for me as well.  I only made the registry change, did not change anything in the VMX file.

[togo109]

Thanks, Wila.  The uninstall-reboot-reinstall of the VMWare Tools did the trick for me.  What a odd strange problem but now my Windows 10 and apps work again.

I checked my registry and that fixed the entry to what you suggest it should be.