It is very common that at home we have several different computers connected to the same network, as well as printers or even external hard drives to share multimedia content. You may not know it, but for all this to work, a Windows protocol needs to work, and this is called SMB.
The SMB protocol (or Server Message Block) is responsible for creating a connection between the server and the client, so simply put, it is what allows another member of your family to access your computer, and see the files that you have shared on it as if they were on your own . This protocol has been with us for more than 30 years, and Microsoft has announced that its oldest version will no longer be available on Windows.
SMB1 is still operational in Windows 11 already installed
After this decision by Microsoft, if we install any version of Windows 11 from now on, we will no longer install the SMB1 protocol by default . At the user level, we are not going to notice any type of change in our system or in our way of interacting with what we have shared on the network, so we will not have to do anything on our computers.
In addition, this change will only affect those people who are going to install any version of Windows 11 from now on, so all of you who have installed this operating system since it is available will continue to have it active . The Redmond company has established a page in its support for those users who decide to disable it. It is not a particularly complicated process, although we will have to enter a series of commands that are listed on that page.
Operation of the SMB protocol.
As is often the case in the computing world, there are some older computers that only continue to support this SMB1 protocol. Microsoft does not intend to leave them without support for data sharing, and that is why it has also announced that it will provide an installation package for organizations and users who still need to use it. This is especially aimed at old factory machinery or medical equipment.
A protocol that is no longer secure
If Microsoft has been using this SMB1 protocol in its Windows for decades, why remove it from its operating systems? In fact, and despite the fact that it has been working for so long, Microsoft has already been warning for more than 5 years that the first version of its SMB protocol was no longer secure . The most recent versions of the same protocol that have been arriving include security measures that are not compatible with it, so this movement is totally understandable.
The SMB2 and SMB3 protocols already have encryption and security enhancements that prevent many known exploits from attacking our computers . In fact, the NSA (National Security Agency of the United States) itself suffered a leak that brought to light the existence of some of these exploits designed by it that were capable of easily exploiting the weaknesses of the Windows SMB1 protocol.
