How to disable netbios name in Windows

There are times when you may not want your computer netbios name broadcast to the local network. We can hide the netbios name by using the net command in Windows.

Firstly, open Windows Command Prompt in administrator mode.

In Windows 10, right-click on the start button and choose Command Prompt (Admin) or Windows Power Shell (Admin).
In Windows 7, click  on the start button and type “Command”, right-click Command Prompt and click Run as Administrator.

Once in Command Prompt, run the following command to see the current server configuration:

net config server

You should see the following:

Server Name                           \\MYLAPTOP
Server Comment

Software version                      Windows 10 Pro
Server is active on
        NetbiosSmb (MYLAPTOP)
        NetBT_Tcpip_{XXXXXXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXXXXXXXXXX} (MYLAPTOP)
        NetBT_Tcpip_{XXXXXXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXXXXXXXXXX} (MYLAPTOP)

Server hidden                         No
Maximum Logged On Users               20
Maximum open files per session        16384

Idle session time (min)               15
The command completed successfully.

If “Server hidden” says “no”, this means your netbios name is being broadcast to the network.

Run the following command to disable it:

net config server /hidden:yes

You should see “The command completed successfully”. You can now view the server config again to confirm that the netbios name has indeed been hidden:

net config server

Server Name                           \\MYLAPTOP
Server Comment
...
Server hidden                         Yes
...

You’re done!

Let me know if this helped. Follow me on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube, or 🍊 buy me a smoothie.