Windows 7: HOMEGROUP troubles

Basically I have a desktop that is connected by Ethernet cable to my router, and laptop connected to the same router via WiFi.

I have set up homegroup on both systems, when I share a folder from the desktop and select specific people > Homegroup, the folder does share and is accessible by the laptop but when i look at the permissions set on the folder, it displays the 'Everyone' with access to full control, read and write.

So basically setting up homegroup automatically shares the folder to everybody connected to the network with full access to the shared folder.



Is there a way to stop homegroup from automatically doing this, even though I specifically set it to share with homegroup when sharing?

Before you join the homegroup you are provided with a set of boxes to tick or untick what you want to share on the network with other systems - as far as I can see other systems would have full control over what you select.

but even devices that aren't using homegroup have full access..

Suggest you read this tutorial which has helped me in the past....

Sharing and Permissions

In my experience, setting up a Homegroup doesn't allow for sharing Library's or the User folder with Users who aren't actually in the Homegroup.

You will want to use the Public Folders for sharing with people who are part of the Network but not in the Homegroup. You can selectively place folders or files into the Public folders for network Users to have access.

If you don't want the other Users in your Homegroup to have full access to the entire User folder "Default Setting" then use the Public Folders to share with those Users and then of course, do not allow those restricted access Users to join the Homegroup, the special Homegroup password adds another layer of security here.

You will need to go into the Sharing tab on the Public folder that you want to share and put a check mark to enable sharing for that folder.

The problem is that the entire User folder "C:\Users" is automatically shared with Everyone in the Homegroup when you join a Homegroup, this gives Everyone in the Homegroup access to everyone else's User folders, this is actually by design because Windows assumes that all Homegroup machines are trusted so the credentials for this high share level are created when you join the Homegroup.

You can choose the Stop Sharing feature on the Doc's, Pic's, Music, Video folders if you don't want to give anyone in the Homegroup access to those folders but the actual User folder is shared by default when you set up a Homegroup and it's sharing settings override the ones for the Homegroup, so if you un-share the User folder it would also un-share all the folders inside it.

It's the all or nothing approach for Windows Homegroup sharing and it's definitely not the way I would prefer to do this.

unshare the user folder, then add the folders you want to share individually,click on a folder, music for instance, click share with at the top of the explorer window, you can select read only ,that way no one can delete your files.
also you can select specific people (that are in the homegroup) from the share with dropdown,

in addition, if you right click the homegroup tab on the left of a explorer window then select change homegroup settings, the following page has links to help pages how to deselect sharing certain folders.

Yes but were trying to prevent read as well, selectively per network user, or at least that was the question I was trying to answer.

And selective User sharing only works with Users who have accounts on the same machine, yes I have tested this.

Deselecting certain folders isn't the problem.

Once you remove Everyone from the User folder all bets are off.

stupid me!
i dont have a network just a homegroup,
so i was posting without realizing about the network.
ah well!

It's such a confusing subject as it is.

I've been going bonkers testing out different ways to make sharing work with more precision but with out having to bring down all the NTFS Security permissions which Windows tends to complain about and also has the potential for some other problems down the line.

What I found out is that any network user in the Workgroup but outside the Homegroup has some major NTFS security obstacle's to overcome for file access and it's not something Windows wants to have happen for obvious reasons.

Because of this, the Public Folders are the way to go for sharing outside the Homegroup, it also shows that the there is more to joining the Homegroup than meets the eye.

Apparently the password required to join a Homegroup creates User credentials as HomeGroupUser$ which normal Workgroup Users just cannot obtain without jumping over some major hurdles with the NTFS Security permission settings.

The C:>User folder is pre-shared by default, but only with the elevated permission Homegroup Users, so everything downstream of the User folders is shared and you have control over which Library folders are shared with the simple "Don't Share" button.

Windows constantly complains and warns about changing the NTFS permission settings because of the obvious security risks but using the Public Folders there is no need to mess with any of that.

You can now share with Select users using SkyDrive which I'm finding to be handy.