Environment: Windows domain
I'm trying to turn on network discovery for 100+ computers and I've created a computer-targeted GPO following instructions from this article: https://www.technig.com/enable-network-discovery-via-group-policy/
I create a test OU and put one computer in said OU and apply GPO to the computer. I then run gpupdate /force on the targeted machine and restart the computer. I then run gpresult /scope computer /v and confirm that the GPO is being applied.
Incidentally, I didn't do the second part that's required for this to work, which is turn on Windows Firewall via GPO as per the article, but just to test I ran the GPO and confirmed that Network Discovery is turned on only when I turn off Windows Firewall manually when I check Advanced sharing settings: https://i.stack.imgur.com/5zUZp.png
When I turn Windows Firewall back on, network discovery and file sharing turn off as per screenshot: https://i.stack.imgur.com/Gn5Bx.png
So I know that my GPO is turning on Network Discovery but windows firewall is blocking it, at least when some inbound rules aren't made yet. I can't turn off Windows Firewall completely (yet) so I proceed to include Windows Firewall exceptions into my GPO as per article instructions. Note that the article suggests only to include inbound rules and not outbound.
I then include these Windows Firewall rules as a part of my network discovery GPO (I didn't bother to create a separate GPO--don't know if this might be a problem).
Anyway, I apply this GPO and I see that the computer pulls it down. The problem is with these inbound firewall rules applied both network discovery and file and print sharing and still turned off. And when I look at Windows Firewall inbound rules I see that the rules are applied and enabled but the tick box for network discovery won't turn on. When I turn off windows firewall for domain the tick box shows it's enabled. So windows firewall is preventing this from working and I don't know what rules to enable to make it work. Turning off windows firewall is the only solution but it's too global.
What am I doing wrong here? Should I have set GPO to enable firewall rule first and then set GPO for enabling network discovery a period after? In my "Network Discovery GPO" I have both network discovery and firewall rules both set. Should I split them up?
I appreciate any insight on this. I really need to get this to work. Thank you.
