Today we have a quick tip from Luis, one of my partners in crime. He had a customer that was experiencing poor file sharing performance with Windows 10 clients. After replicating the environment Luis discovered the issue was due to the SMB (Server Message Block) version being used. He was able to increase the performance by forcing a lower version of SMB to be used. He discovered though that SMB version 1 is no longer supported by default in Windows 10. He found a way to turn it back on.
I wanted to share that with you as it can be useful in a situation where there is an older file server. When I say older, think Windows 2003 or Windows XP. So it is no wonder than Microsoft has decided not to allow SMB 1 by default. I don’t recommend following this procedure simply to increase performance as the trade-off is less security and fewer features. Also following the below process will not by itself increase speed, as the highest version of SMB will be negotiated*. This process will allow a Windows Server 2016 or Windows 10 client to connect to an older Windows system hosting a file share.
To enable SMB 1 do the following on the Windows Server 2016 or Windows 10 client.
- Open the registry editor and navigate to the following key:
HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\LanmanWorkstation - Open the DependOnService key.
- Add MRxSmb10 to the list below MRSmb20 entry and click OK.
- Close the registry editor and restart the Workstation service.
I hope you enjoyed this article and found it informative. If you have anything to add or just want to comment, please feel to do so below.
*If you are dead-set on running SMB 1 to improve performance have a look at this Microsoft article.
Glennopedia 