When you connect your laptop to a new Wi-Fi network, it’s never enough for Windows to just connect you and be done with it. It always asks you this rather cryptic question about “Do you want to allow your PC to be discoverable by other PCs and devices on this network?”, with a warning that you shouldn’t do it if you’re sitting at a coffee shop or on a public network.

But many folks have never quite understood what picking one option over the other one means, and even more frustrating is that, if you click the wrong thing, or click away from it, it’s very difficult to find that prompt again.

Start > Settings > Network & Internet > Change connection properties 

So basically, what it comes down to is whether you want to use file and device sharing, for devices it would commonly be something like a printer, on your local network. And lots of people never bother with this, but it can be useful. So, let’s have a look at what answering that question Yes or No actually does, and how to take advantage of the associated features.

If you tell Windows that you don’t want your computer to be discoverable, it won’t let any other devices on the network see any files or devices that you’re sharing either, and this is simply meant as another layer of protection if you’re on a strange network, like one at an airport, restaurant or railway station. But, if you answer Yes, it will allow you to share those things i.e. Shared files, on whatever network you’re connected to, which is unsafe to do on a public network since anyone can access it from that network.