I am currently running Windows 7 Pro x64. I use Microsoft Security Essentials and Microsoft's Windows Firewall. No additional AV or software firewalls are currently installed. I regularly use the several Xbox 360s to stream media from this machine over the home network. Additionally, I have set up a Homegroup to share out resources such as the printer and fileshares with other machines in the house. This was all working perfectly until a few weeks ago. No direct changes were made to the installation other than updates from Microsoft, Adobe (Flash), and Oracle (Java). Now, unless I turn off the Windows Firewall, my xboxs cannot see the sharing machine and no other networked computers can print/share via the HomeGroup.
Currently, Network Discovery, File and Printer Sharing, and Media Streaming are disabled and cannot be re-enabled. Checking the radio buttons on the first two then clicking to save does nothing. I am sent back to the Network and Sharing Center screen, but when I check the options again under Change advanced sharing settings, the options have returned to disabled. Media Streaming from this screen says it is turned on (even though it is not), but when I select the option to change this, it says it is turned off (which is correct). Selecting the option to enable Media Streaming does nothing. I can click the button constantly with no change.
I have run both Symantec's free online Virus Scan as well as MSSE's full system scan where each found an item, and in each instance, both items were removed using (for the threat found by Symantec) NPE and (for the issue found by MSSE) the MSSE tool. I have also run SFC/scannow and repaired the issue identified. With two full scans from each tool I am positive my machine is threat and corruption free.
Additionally, I have gone through the list of reccomended services to be "started" and set to "automatic" that has been posted MANY times by MANY people. For clarity, I have all of these started and set to automatic:
o Computer Browser
o DHCP Client
o DNS Client
o Network Connections
o Network Location Awareness
o Remote Procedure Call (RPC)
o Server
o TCP/IP Netbios helper
o Workstation
With all of these started, I still cannot keep the Network Discovery, File and Printer sharing, or Media Streaming options turned on. I have also made sure UPnP was started as well.
I did notice, however, when I disabled the Windows Firewall, all options could be changed and stayed changed. I added the WMP to the firewall's whitelist and turned the firewall back on. All options failed again. Outgoing options in the firwall are all set to allow, though incoming is currently denied stating "block all connection to programs that are not on the list of allowed programs." This is the default state of the Windows Firewall.
Running without AV and a FW is NOT an option. More specifically, these are MS tools and should not conflict with these simple networking features.
HELP
