How to Enable SMB Server in Windows 11 PC?

SMB, stands for Server Message Block, is a client-server protocol. This helps to share files on network from a server or from another device. If you are having problems when connecting to a SMB server, then the first thing you should check is whether SMB is enabled on your PC. By default, SMB is disabled on Windows 11 PC and here is how you can enable SMB using different methods.

Check SMB is Enabled from PowerShell

SMB protocol has three versions V1, V2 and V3. When you enable V2, Windows will enable V3 as well. First, you can check SMB is already enabled on your PC from Windows PowerShell app.

• Click on Windows Search and type “powershell” in the box.
• Find Windows PowerShell app and click on “Run as administrator” link to open the app in admin mode.

• Type the following command and press enter key.

Get-SmbServerConfiguration | Select EnableSMB2Protocol

• As you can see the status is returned as “True” indicating SMB is already enabled on the PC. If the result shows as “False” then you need to enable it on your PC.

Note: The above command checks for SMB V2. You can use EnableSMB1Protocol or EnableSMB3Protocol in the command to check respective versions.

1. Enable SMB from PowerShell in Windows

There are multiple ways to enable SMB on your PC. The easiest way is to enable from PowerShell using the following command.

Set-SmbServerConfiguration -EnableSMB2Protocol $true

Paste the command and press enter key, you will be prompted to confirm the action. Type Y and press enter to enable SMB server.

You can also use the following command if for any reasons you want to disable SMB server.

Set-SmbServerConfiguration -EnableSMB2Protocol $false

You can again enable and check if that resolves your problems.

2. Enable SMB from Control Panel

If you are not able to use PowerShell, then you can use Control Panel to enable SMB.

• Click Windows Search icon on taskbar and search for “control panel”.
• Find and open Control Panel app from the result.
• Change the “View by” to “Category” and click on “Programs” option.

• On the next screen, click “Turn Windows features on or off” option under “Programs and Features” section.

• It will open “Windows Features” pop-up showing various Windows features. Scroll to the middle in the pop-up and enable “SMB 1.0/CIFS File Sharing Support” option. This option has three sub-items, make sure all the items are enabled.

• Click “OK” button to apply the changes. Windows will search for required files and show the success message that requested changes are completed. Click on “Restart now” button to enable SMB immediately or select “Don’t restart” to apply the changes later when you restart the computer.

3. Enable SMB from Registry Editor

We recommend using one of the above two options whichever is easier. However, if you are the registry guy then you can enable SMB from the Registry Editor.

• Press “Win + R” to open Run prompt.
• Type regedit and press “OK” button to open Registry Editor.
• Copy the below path, paste in the Registry Editor’s address bar and press enter key.

Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\LanmanServer\Parameters

• Check if there is any key with the name “SMB2” or similar available in the right pane.

• If the key is not available, right click and select “New > DWORD (32-bit) Value” option and name the key as SMB2.

• Double on the SMB2 and set the value data as 1. This indicates the SMB is enabled on your PC while the value 0 indicates the option is disabled.

Similarly, you can create SMB1 or SMB3 keys and assign the value as 1 to enable SMB V1 or V3 if you need.