What role does the Guest account and the Everyone group play in enabling anonymous SMB access on Windows?

The Guest account must be enabled for anonymous users to authenticate as Guest. Additionally, the policy "Network access: Let Everyone permissions apply to anonymous users" must be enabled so that the Everyone group (which includes Guest) grants permissions to anonymous connections. Without these, anonymous users would be denied access even if the share permissions allow Everyone. This configuration is critical in both domain and workgroup environments.