On Windows 8.1 and Server 2012 R2, SMB 1.0 (aka CIFS) is no longer enabled by default. This means clients that don't support at least SMB 2.0 (for Windows: everything predating Vista/2008) can no longer directly connect to a 8.1/2012R2 server, and instead, are presented with an error if they attempt to do so:

Error

The specified network name is no longer available.

You can re-enable SMB 1.0 support by installing the SMB 1.0/CIFS support feature on your server.

Still not working?

Some users reported that even after enabling this feature, they could not access shares on the server. Apparently, the SMB 1.0 driver is not loaded properly, because of a missing dependency on the Server service (aka LanmanServer).

Warning

I never had to perform these steps, so don't make the changes below unless you're certain it will resolve whatever issues you have.

To add this dependency, follow these steps:

1. Fire up regedit.
2. Navigate to the key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\LanmanServer.
3. The value DependOnService (of type REG_MULTI_SZ contains a list of depending services and drivers. Open the value to change it. Either:
   • Replace Srv2 by Srv to replace the dependency from SMB 2.0 to SMB 1.0.
   • Add Srv as a new line (new dependency).
   Leave the of the dependency list as it was.
4. Reboot the server for the changes to take effect.

More information

• SMB version support matrix