Windows 7: Setting up sharing with private and public folders

Hi everyone. Been using Windows 7 for a while now. Trying to understand the advanced sharing a little more. Here is what I want to accomplish.

I have 2 computers both with Windows 7 RTM. One laptop and one desktop.
I want both of the computers to each have shared folders each with....

1 Shared folder that requires a login with the same username/password on the host computer
1 Public folder that doesn't need login and can be accessed by anyone in my workgroup.

As of right now I have almost got what I wanted, except for the logon thing.



By using advanced sharing I have got a public folder that can be seen by everyone as well as a folder that is only accessible by me. Since both my computers have the same login/pw, I can only access this private folder on either PC when I am logged on.

If I use my roomates computer for example, which uses a different Username/pw, I am not prompted to enter my credentials. I am just unable to access the folder.

Is there a way to add the option to allow credential login on these private folders so I an access them from any computer granted that I use my Username and PW to login.

Here are some screenshots of how my private and public folders are set up as well as my Win 7 networking settings.

To sum it up. I want to be able to access private shared folders from computers other than my own where I can login to them with my username/pw.

Thanks in advance!

Go to My Computer and map a network drive. Enter the name of the share like \\james-laptop\james welch and click the place where it lets you specify alternate credentials. Use the username and password of your computer.

Let us know whether or not it worked.

There are other ways to solve that problem but this is the easiest one to try off the top of my head.

This method worked, but was wondering if there was a way to do this without having to map a drive. Thanks for this method though it will do just fine.

Great. At least we have one way that works. Another way is to open a command prompt and go:

net use \\james-laptop\ipc$ /user:james

(enter your password), then

explorer "\\james-laptop\james welch"