Is there a way to file share with XP?

i had this problem , i could see the xp pc but could not access it from my windows 7 laptop ,and i fixed it somehow and now everything is working great , so here are some of the things that i did ( along with the other suggestions from the posts on this thread ) :

1- in windows 7 make sure you leave "homegroup" , you can do this from the network and sharing center( i don't remember how but it's easy).

2-also in windows 7 in Network and sharing center go to "Change advanced sharing settings" and turn everything on except the "password protected sharing" turn that off. and now for the most important part , in the "HomeGroup connections" section set it to "Use user accounts and passwords to connect to other computers".

of course those two steps are not the only thing you should do , you also have to make sure that all the basic stuff are in place , like having the same workgroup name for the two systems and enabling file and printer sharing in xp , and other stuff mentioned in this thread.

I have XP SP2, Vista, and one 7 system in a local home network. Our family music server is an XP SP2 machine with share for MP3's and a share for other media content. The other XP machines can see and access MUSICSERV, the Vista machines can see and use MUSICSERV, however my Windows 7 system cannot "see" let alone use the shares. However, I can successfully ping the IP of that machine and it does show up in the Network Map. My 7 machine can only see Vista machines in the network, and none of the XP machines.

I have tried most of the suggestions that I have found:

• ensured the basics that I am familiar with; workgroup name is the same across all computers, share is avialable and accessable by all the other computers as it has been for years, etc.
• made sure that advanced sharing settings are as suggested (network discovery, file & printer sharing, sharing so anyone..., all on, password protection off, and use user accounts and passwords)
• Left any Homegroup
• Tried installing IPv6 on the XP SP2 machine
• Tried disabling IPv6 on the Windows 7 machine
• Tried "Enable NetBIOS over TCP/IP" in WINS confguration for IPv4 on both the XP and 7 machines
• Sacrificed a chicken under the new moon and spread the entrails around the Windows 7 machine in an effigy of Bill Gates.....

Doesn't seem to be working. Any better ideas ? I have been working with computer networks since the early ages, so I am no noobie at this, but can't seem to problem solve this one. Any assistance is much appreciated.

For Santoku:

I am in the -exact- same issue with you and everyone else, I am by no means new at this - Hell, I started building computers from the ground up using toggle DIP switches to set IRQ's - Windows sharing has always been SOOO Simple - as easy as right clicking in (Windows XP and above) a folder, clicking to share it - and boom, the network is shared and you can see that folder - no issues or passwords needed, no one flying down to the root file structure without passwords.

What in the shit was M$oft thinking with this crap? Windows worked -perfect- in the networking world, and as far as I can tell - they are 'forcing' every single machine to either upgrade to windows 7, or to be forced to have a broken network.

I'm trying to share movies over my network via one single folder titled 'Movies' and for the life of me, I cant get -anything- to share, sure - my PS3 can pick it up - but my Popcorn player upstairs cant, anything windows xp cant, vista cant - nothing works.

And yes, I've tried everything I can think of.. I just now enabled the ICS under services, and thats the last ditch I'll try.


I moved to Windows 7 originally because everything is moving to it, I'm a big gamer as well and Vista had issues that Windows 7 didnt - so that was a huge plus - but now this Network stuff is so retarded... how can Microsoft not fix this?

I can also ping the xp box by either name or IP address


Yuasa

For you guys who can't even see the XP machines from your Win 7 machine these steps, they work everytime. :)

Go through this tutorial about sharing with XP, click on the XP tab, it should help.
Sharing files and printers with different versions of Windows - Help & How-to - Microsoft Windows

This one is more general but has good info.
Networking home computers running different versions of Windows

It can also help to get around password problems if you use the same username and password on all machines in the LAN.

After going through all of that if you are still having file access problems try doing this registry adjustment on the Win 7 machine with the problem.

Solution is really easy just modify one key in registry:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System
create or modify 32-bit DWORD: LocalAccountTokenFilterPolicy
set the value to: 1

One of the original posts here.
Networking 7 and XP Issue

The entire thing is though - it shouldnt be this hard to get a simple network working, honestly.

Microsoft needs to pull there hands out of there pants and stop messing with something that already worked perfectly, Something as simple as sharing folders always worked perfectly in every version of windows - now they buggered it up and arent doing any valid steps to make it 'easier' for the general public. I shouldnt have to go through services and registry to set up ICS and whatever else on a store bought version of Windows 7 just to share some folders

I use a programme called Network Magic from Cisco. Around £20 for the basic programme and about £40 for the pro version. I use it with W7, XP and Vista machines and share a printer between all PC's. Easy to set up and so easy to use

WowMike2002 said:

The entire thing is though - it shouldnt be this hard to get a simple network working, honestly.

Microsoft needs to pull there hands out of there pants and stop messing with something that already worked perfectly, Something as simple as sharing folders always worked perfectly in every version of windows - now they buggered it up and arent doing any valid steps to make it 'easier' for the general public. I shouldnt have to go through services and registry to set up ICS and whatever else on a store bought version of Windows 7 just to share some folders

Is this supposed to be my reward for posting relevant information?