"The handle is invalid" when accessing share over network.
I have a client with a Windows 7 pc with a folder that is shared on their network (Workgroup). Sometime last week, after Windows Updates were installed, the other pcs on the local network could no longer browse the network or map a network drive to the Windows 7 network share.
Upon further investigation I found that the pcs were able to ping the Windows 7 by name and ip address. This ruled out DNS issues. I also temporarily turned off the Norton Firewall software to rule that out as well. The error that was displayed was either "The handle is invalid" or "Unknown Error" from other devices on the network.
After some research it appears that KB4480970 is breaking network connectivity on Windows 7 pcs.
The Fix
Two possible fixes I found were to remove the KB4480970. I generally do not like removing windows updates unless its a last resort so I opted for the second option. The other fix was to install a hot fix that resolves the problem from the first update. After installing the hotfix listed in the below link, pcs were immediately able to access the Windows 7 PC network share again.
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4487345/update-for-windows-7-sp1-and-windows-server-2008-r2
This may not work for everyone but It Fixed it for me.
If anyone has an alternate fix please post it in the comments.
Thank you.
This is the first article that came up when looking for “the handle is invalid” and your advise helped get my network going.
I spent some time reseting my router and the wireless client-bridge that I have trying to figure out why my shares and remote desktop were not working. I have not been able to remote desktop into my share server for two weeks but the shares seem to be accessible. They were not accessible yesterday so I started looking at the routers. 4 systems all windows 7 cannot remote desktop to each other unless i turn down the security on remote desktop…. all worked fine for a couple years.
Remote desktop would start to connect then claim “the local sercurity authority cannot be located” when logging in.
KB4480970
installing this fix worked for my network and remote desktop issues
http://www.catalog.update.microsoft.com/Search.aspx?q=KB4487345