Original user folder visible to all

I have a home network with two Windows 7 machines on it (one is Ultimate 64bit, the other Pro 64 bit). Also on the network are two Windows XP machines (Pro and Home), a Vista machine, and for good measure an Ubuntu 10.04 machine and an SME server (which we can ignore for the moment).

When I installed Windows 7 on the two pc's, the first account I created was for me, username jim. Afterwards, on the Ultimate box I created an administrator account for my wife, and standard user accounts for my kids. I didn't create any other accounts on the Pro box at all.

I have noticed that on both machines, I can access the c:\users\jim folder from any other machine on the network. I can view, read, edit, and create files. For example, if I log on to my WinXP Pro box as user jimmcl (who doesn't exist on either of the Windows 7 machines) I can go to the Documents folder of the jim account on the Ultimate box, create a Word document, edit and save it.
However, I cannot even see the folders for my wife or kids (which is the way it should be). From what I can see, the sharing and security settings on the folders are exactly the same.

My Advanced Sharing Settings are as follows:

Turn on network discovery
Turn on file and printer sharing
Turn on sharing so anyone with network access can read and write files in the Public Folders
Turn on password protected sharing
Allow Windows to manage homegroup connections

There are no homegroups set up.

Now, I'll be honest and say that I've been fiddling with things on the W7 Pro machine, and now have it that any user can only see the jim folder and contents, but cannot read or change anything. I'm not going to touch the Ultimate machine until I know why things are the way they are.

Can someone help please? Thanks.

Welcome to Windows Seven Forums.

I'm no expert on networking, but I'd guess your problems stem from the fact you're using Homegroup to set up your computers.

Trouble is, only Windows 7 computers will network properly using the Homegroup i.e. Vista and XP are incompatible with Windows 7's Homegroup so I'd be inclined to create a network using Workgroup instead.

Complete Guide to Networking Windows 7 with XP and Vista - How-To Geek

Thanks for that. The problem seems to have sorted itself after a reboot. I suspect that it is because I didn't reboot after turning on Password protected sharing on the Ultimate machine. I'll have another play just to make sure though.

OK, that's great. Thanks for letting us know.