Windows 7: "Access is denied" - Cannot access shared drives

I haven't really had any issues since I first installed Windows 7 and now I'm trying to access a shared drive over a network and I'm getting this annoying error message that I cannot access a shared drive over the network.



I decided to reinstall Windows 7 and before that I never had this issue.

I have not installed any third party software, I've enabled network discovery and right now I cannot access any shared folders or drives, at all, though it can see it.

I'm getting that stupid error message: "<Network drive> is not accessible. You might not have permission to use this network resource. Contact the administrator of the server to find out if you have access permissions. Access is denied."

What am I doing wrong here? Can somebody please help.

A common problem. Many ways to fix

make sure both computers are in the same Workgroup/Homegroup and that you are logged in with the same username and password on each*. Do not leave the password blank. If the password is blank (not recommended) you must enable anonymous or Guest access (again, not recommended), and the shared folder must have the "Everyone" group in both share permissions and access control list (don't do it).

* Note: you don't really need to log on to each computer at the same time locally. All that really matters is that the same account exists on both computers and that you are logged in to that account on the machine you are using to access the share.