[redkoatz]

Ok well I added this particular share manually I suppose via files/ network etc. And then no shared drive permanently appears under files.
I don't know about auto share?

Nickr : by "proper" os I assume you mean not Windows 7. I think this response is erroneous, as I'm using kodi, android, Windows 7 , windows 8 and linux debian, depending on who comes into my house to share files.
By "hosting the files" you must either mean

1: everybody who ever enters my house should not use Windows
2: everybody who enters my house sound first upload the files to a non windows pc which will then host them for anybody else.

Both of which doesn't really seem very realistic/reasonable does it ? Especially as it means the non Windows host would need a hard drive with a capacity equal to or greater than the sum of its parts.
I assume you are just over zealous about Linux (which I can relate to) but in terms of this thread "how to access files on a Windows pc) my question is still pertinent, when such a large amount of computers are in fact Windows.

So until linux either masters accessing windows shares easily, or linux becomes mainstream, I think I need to still figure out how to access Windows shares. I think it would benefit others too. Agreed?

[nickr]

Windows just seems to be incompetent at easily serving files over a network. Windows 10 seems the worst. My linux server just does it, day in, day out, never misses a beat. Whenever I run out of space just add a disk. Horses for courses, but windows is just not a server os.