How to Restart the Windows File Sharing Service

This quick tutorial will show you how to restart the Windows file sharing service on your Windows desktop / server. This can be useful if you encounter issues sharing files on your computer, and cannot or do not want to reboot the system.

This tutorial is intended for Windows 10 / 11 and Windows Server 2016 or later. It assumes that you have already enabled and configured Windows file sharing on your computer.

  • Open the Start menu and type “services.msc” in the search box. Press Enter to open the Services window.Opened the start menu and typed in "services.msc". 
    • Alternatively, you may use the keyboard combination Win+R to open the Windows run box and type in “services.msc”.Opened the run box (using the key combination Win+R) and typed in "services.msc".
  • Locate the service named “Server” in the list of services.Located the "Server" service.
  • Right-click on the service and click “Restart”. This will stop and start the service again.Restarting the "Server" service.
  • Now you can verify if your issue has gone away. If not, then a reboot might be in order.

 That’s it! Hopefully someone will find this tutorial useful.


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