Public or Private Network: Choose Based on Trust and Sharing
Public and Private are Windows network profiles, not a measure of internet speed or the strength of your Wi-Fi password. The choice affects discovery and sharing behaviour. Changing to Private should have a reason connected to a network you trust.
Microsoft recommends the Public profile for most connections. It reduces the PC's visibility to other devices. Private is intended for a network where you know and trust the other people and devices and want functions such as local file or printer sharing.
Identify the actual connection
Open Settings, Network & internet and inspect the connected network's properties. For Wi-Fi, check the network name carefully; a familiar-looking hotspot is not necessarily your own router. For Ethernet, establish what the cable connects to, especially in a shared building or temporary workspace.
If your goal is ordinary web browsing, switching profiles is not a general fix for no internet. Compare the connection and error first. If the goal is finding a trusted local share or printer, the profile is one part of the required configuration, alongside sharing permissions and device availability.
On a managed business computer, preserve the administrator's intended settings. If the profile cannot be changed or changes back, report that behaviour rather than disabling the firewall.
Make and verify a justified change
When the network is trusted and Private fits the task, select it under Network profile type. Test only the intended resource. Confirm that you can access the correct printer or shared folder with the permissions you are supposed to have.
Do not interpret newly visible devices as permission to browse their files. Discovery and authorisation are different controls.
When you connect to another network later, check its own profile instead of assuming the previous decision applies. A laptop used at home, at a customer site and on public Wi-Fi needs decisions based on each connection. Keep sharing limited to the resources you deliberately intend to expose.
Reference: Microsoft Support.