User profile shows as shared

Hi, I don't use Homegroup, as I am the only 7 user so far. I got a few Vista and XP users on my home network and just wanted to set up some shared folders on the 7 desktop as I have always done with older Windows versions, had to jump thru some hoops to do it, but finally worked, enabled the shared folder for "everyone" per business as usual, but when I open My Network Places on my XP desktop, I see not only the shared folder on my 7 laptop, but also my user folder on the 7 laptop! How and why is this shared? All I shared was one folder on my desktop, not my entire user folder?? I can mess with any files in there I like, which is, needless to say, kind of dangerous.. Furthermore, I see my boyfriend's Vista user folder showing up as shared in My Network Places also. I also see his public folders, something I can't get to work on 7, but figured I would get around to that sometime, but this user shared folder is freaking me out a bit. I can't see or access any user folders on any XP boxes, why are they showing in 7 and Vista? Would some kind person explain what I am doing wrong?

I also discovered this today. The full Users folder is shared by default in Win7, it seems.
You can of course un-share the folder. Here's a link to a discussion on the topic:

http://social.answers.microsoft.com/...e-863c6aebb510

Thanks for the reply, I had disabled the share via advanced sharing, which was the only option available, contrary to what the advice is in the link - but as also noted in that thread, as soon as I share another folder on the desktop, my user directory is once again shared. It seems that 7 defaults to sharing the entire user directory when a directory within that profile is shared, which is annoying as hell, because I am used to sharing folders on my desktop because it is easy and manageable, and I am having trouble getting the public folders, which are supposed to be shared, to even show up on my desktop, let alone be seen by anyone on my network. Arghhhh!

I am using 7 RTM, maybe this will be addressed in a final retail version, I assumed the RTM offered by MS to licensed customers is the final retail, though?

This is also a problem in Vista, which I was not very familiar with as I only worked with it on my boyfriend's laptop, so it's strange that this problem doesn't seem to be an issue (!) or I would have found references to it in various search engines and so far found nothing, weird..

First: The RTM is the final version, and second:

I just tried creating a new folder on my desktop (which is within the User hierarchy, obviously) and sharing that folder. The C:\Users folder remains unshared on my computer, so it seems I am seeing a different behaviour that you. Could you just try that?

Regards
-Øyvind

The Users folder is shared, but it shouldn't be an issue because when password protected sharing is enabled you really should not be able to access private data of another user account. Rather you should only be able to access the private data of the account you're logged in as, and public data of other accounts.

Hi, that may be the problem and the solution, since other than my 7 laptop, the computers on the network don't use passwords, I will set that up and see what happens, they won't like it though since they aren't used to using passwords, and see if the behaviour changes as you stated, thanks.