Computer Browser Service
Prewitt Howells
I think this was a service often listed as a requirement for SCOM or some of the MP's. If it were my system, I would disable the monitor or make it informational unless you find it to be a real issue. Likely just noise. Many of the core OS services do pretty well on their own.
The service Browser still exists in recent operating system (also windows 2022), but not visible in services.msc. I think it still exists for compatability reasons. You can get the status by 'get-service bowser'
SCOM reports sometimes it's not running, but it is. It looks like a SCOM problem, we have 2019 UR3, will try UR4 soon.
Browser service or Computer Browser Service[1] is a feature of Microsoft Windows to let users easily browse and locate shared resources in neighboring computers. This is done by aggregating the information in a single computer "Browse Master" (or "Master Browser"). All other computers contact this computer for information and display in the Network Neighborhood window.
Browser service runs on MailSlot / Server Message Block and thus can be used with all supported transport protocol such as NBF ("NetBEUI"), NBX (IPX/SPX) and NBT (TCP/IP). Browser service relies heavily on broadcast, so it is not available across network segments separated by routers. Browsing across different IP subnets need the help of Domain Master Browser, which is always the Primary Domain Controller (PDC). Therefore, browsing across IP subnets is not possible in a pure workgroup network.
Windows NT uses the Computer Browser service to collect and display all computers and other resources on the network. For example, opening Network Neighborhood displays the list of computers, shared folders, and printers; the Computer Browser service manages this list. Every time Windows NT boots up, this service also starts.[3]
Computer Browser is responsible for two closely related services: building a list of available network resources, and sharing this list with other computers. All Windows NT computers run the Computer Browser service, but not all of them are responsible for building the list.[3]
Domain master browser: In NT domains, the primary domain controllers (PDCs) handle this role. The PDCs maintain a list of all available network servers located on all subnets in the domain. They get the list for each subnet from the master browser for that subnet. On networks that have only one subnet, the PDC handles both the domain master browser and the master browser roles.Master browsers: Computers maintaining this role build the browse list for servers on their own subnet and forward the list to the domain master browser and the backup browsers on its own subnet. There is one master browser per subnet.Backup browsers: These computers distribute the list of available servers from master browsers and send them to individual computers requesting the information. For example, when you open Network Neighborhood, your computer contacts the backup browser and requests the list of all available servers.Potential browsers: Some computers don't currently maintain the browse list, but they're capable of doing so if necessary, which designates them as potential browsers. If one of the existing browsers fails, potential browsers can take over.Nonbrowsers: These are computers that aren't capable of maintaining and distributing a browse list.
The computer browser service in windows computers used to be a little program that ran on windows computers by default that would seek out other computers on the network and compile a list. back in the 90s this was really useful but unfortunately it relied on SMB version 1.0. SMB (Server Message Block) is a protocol used to move things like files around a network. Unfortunately, in 1996 when SMB 1.0 was built security was not a concern.
If you want to be able to expand THIS PC > NETWORK and see the other computers on your network, do not start the Computer Browser service but instead start the Function discovery provider host and the Function discovery resource publication services and set them to run automatically.
Everything i have read says that in a domain environment, the presence of a dc doing the browser job means that you can disable the browser on workstations. In fact, i occasionally saw that some workstations were forcing master browser elections, so i set the computer browser service to start manually on every workstation i happened to work on. I just didn't have the guts to disable it outright as i know that if set to manual some processes will start it.
Then my laptops went out of office in groups of 2-5 and connected via ad-hoc network. They have a program that synchronizes files between them and depends on windows file sharing. Because they are all on the same domain and are using their domain credentials, security should not be an issue. Yet, sometimes computers connected on the ad-hoc, or by a portable wireless router, or directly connected on a little 4port hub still have difficulty in finding each other.
According to this http:/ Opens a new window/support.microsoft.com/kb/188001 I would say you assume correctly, you will need the service if you don't have an AD structure, and if you do have an AD structure the PDC is always the Master Browser and subsequent DCs backups to the master.
I have my default domain GPO that disables this service on all systems. Additionally, I leave it alone on the default domain controller GPO. All clients can see "browse" the network flawlessly. I initially had this service disabled on all systems until I got reports that the browse list was incomplete. Re-enabling on the DCs (the PDC is all that matters) immediately fixed this issue.
The browser service is a hold over from Wins and single lans without routers, but allows for bridges; but it's all pre active directory tied to dns stuff. We disable the browser service on our desktops and do it all through dns.
I always see those damn event log entries on workstations saying "PC X thinks it is the master browser and is forcing an election" but never really got round to looking into it so if you find that disabling this service gets rid of that and doesn't cause any negative effects then I'd be interested to hear about it :)
Is that one completely removed or is there any way to get it installed on Server 2019? Otherwise I apparently need to spin up at least one Server 2012 R2 DC to act as the PDC, or keep one of the old DC's around. We also would need at least one Server 2012 R2 or older in all the subnets to maintain the computer list.
I wouldn't like to do that because the support for the 2012 is ending in a couple of years. Is anybody else still relying on the "Network neighborhood" to access the shared files and printers? We still have a couple of Server 2003 R2 and Server 2000 terminal servers which we're not going to get away any time soon so the Computer Browsing service needs to be functional.
Computer Browser Service is a feature of Microsoft Windows to get a list of computers and shared resources on a network and supplies this list to the computers on the network. If this service is stopped or disabled or not installed, this list will not be updated and any services or tools that explicitly depend on this service will not work.
The Computer Browser service is a legacy service that depends on SMBv1 protocol (SMBv1 client/server components). Microsoft publicly deprecated the SMBv1 (Server Message Block version 1) protocol in 2014.
As already mentioned, if the Computer Browser service is not installed or stopped, the services or tools which depend on this service will not work. The following listed tools and APIs will not work without this service.
As already mentioned, for security reasons, Microsoft is working hard to persuade users not to use SMB v1 (which includes the Computer Browser service). But if you really need it, you can enable it in a client machine by following the below steps.
I'm faced with a Windows 2003 server that doesn't have the Computer Browser service, and I have no idea how to get it back. The Server has "Run Advertised Programs" in the control panel, so that indicates SMS (MS Systems Management Server) may have been used to lock down the server. But we don't have SMS (we've ingerited this server from another organisation).
I have been running Symantec Endpoint Protection Manager 14 on my Windows 2012 server for about a month. This week I started having issues during a remote push to clients. At first it told me that the computer browser service was not running. So I looked in Windows Services and found it disabled. I enabled and started the service and tried again and received the following error that I am stuck on. Network Provider: Microsoft Windows Network Error: The service has not been started.
If you enabled the computer browser service already, please open Windows Command Prompt, and run command "net view", if you get the same error message, that means it's not a symantec problem, it's a network issue, casued by Master Browser. We recently update our some of workstations to Windows 10 1703, this version may casue the Master Browser stop working. After change the Master Browser to a workstation running Windows 10 1607, the problem gone.
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