Windows 7: Win7 laptop on XP workgroup

RedBirdDad · 16 Jan 2010

You're running Ultimate so you might want to try Windows Virtual PC. That will see the workgroup just fine and you can give it access to the local drives.

surfasb · 16 Jan 2010

Quote: Originally Posted by jonmitch

Hi,

Well, that didn't work for c$ - eg: \\PCName\c$

Does that little back-door no longer work from Windows 7 ?

Thanks,

Jon

By default, those hidden shares are blocked except for system services.

Try it with the IP address, per my above post.

jonmitch · 16 Jan 2010

OK - apologies for being clueless. 2 things working against me.

1) I have dynamic IP on the main home pc - and was using an old IP address.
2) the "C$" shortcut that worked on XP to give me access to the whole drive does not work.

Apart from that, I have successfully managed to connect to one of my shares.

Now to set static IP on the main home PCs & Macs .....

Thanks for the help so far, and I will report back on how well this goes.

Jon

RedBirdDad · 16 Jan 2010

Quote: Originally Posted by jonmitch

OK - apologies for being clueless. 2 things working against me.

1) I have dynamic IP on the main home pc - and was using an old IP address.
2) the "C$" shortcut that worked on XP to give me access to the whole drive does not work.

Apart from that, I have successfully managed to connect to one of my shares.

Now to set static IP on the main home PCs & Macs .....

Thanks for the help so far, and I will report back on how well this goes.

Jon

You may still be able to use the \\PCName. If you share the drive on the XP machine give it a share name. Then use the \\PCName\sharename instead of the C$.

surfasb · 16 Jan 2010

Yeah, unfortunately, there isn't another way to get around this, AFAIK.

edit:

Quote: Originally Posted by RedBirdDad

Quote: Originally Posted by jonmitch

OK - apologies for being clueless. 2 things working against me.

1) I have dynamic IP on the main home pc - and was using an old IP address.
2) the "C$" shortcut that worked on XP to give me access to the whole drive does not work.

Apart from that, I have successfully managed to connect to one of my shares.

Now to set static IP on the main home PCs & Macs .....

Thanks for the help so far, and I will report back on how well this goes.

Jon

You may still be able to use the \\PCName. If you share the drive on the XP machine give it a share name. Then use the \\PCName\sharename instead of the C$.

Yeah, I think we addressed this earlier. Because he's part of a domain, Windows will append the domain to the PCNAME every time, which is why it won't work. While you can turn it off, it will screw with his day at work. Or his admin can simply override his changes as soon as he logs in at work.

RedBirdDad · 16 Jan 2010

Quote: Originally Posted by surfasb

Yeah, unfortunately, there isn't another way to get around this, AFAIK.

edit:

Quote: Originally Posted by RedBirdDad

Quote: Originally Posted by jonmitch

OK - apologies for being clueless. 2 things working against me.

1) I have dynamic IP on the main home pc - and was using an old IP address.
2) the "C$" shortcut that worked on XP to give me access to the whole drive does not work.

Apart from that, I have successfully managed to connect to one of my shares.

Now to set static IP on the main home PCs & Macs .....

Thanks for the help so far, and I will report back on how well this goes.

Jon

You may still be able to use the \\PCName. If you share the drive on the XP machine give it a share name. Then use the \\PCName\sharename instead of the C$.

Yeah, I think we addressed this earlier. Because he's part of a domain, Windows will append the domain to the PCNAME every time, which is why it won't work. While you can turn it off, it will screw with his day at work. Or his admin can simply override his changes as soon as he logs in at work.

Must be something new in Windows 7. I used to do this on my work XP laptop. It's on a domain but was still able to access shares on my home workgroup that way. Oh well.

surfasb · 16 Jan 2010

Quote: Originally Posted by RedBirdDad

Quote: Originally Posted by surfasb

Yeah, unfortunately, there isn't another way to get around this, AFAIK.

edit:

Quote: Originally Posted by RedBirdDad

You may still be able to use the \\PCName. If you share the drive on the XP machine give it a share name. Then use the \\PCName\sharename instead of the C$.

Yeah, I think we addressed this earlier. Because he's part of a domain, Windows will append the domain to the PCNAME every time, which is why it won't work. While you can turn it off, it will screw with his day at work. Or his admin can simply override his changes as soon as he logs in at work.

Must be something new in Windows 7. I used to do this on my work XP laptop. It's on a domain but was still able to access shares on my home workgroup that way. Oh well.

It's not new to Windows 7. You are just lucky me thinks.

RedBirdDad · 16 Jan 2010

]

Quote: Originally Posted by surfasb

It's not new to Windows 7. You are just lucky me thinks.

Guess what: It *does* work. If he opens windows explorer and types "\\PCName\SHARE NAME" in the address bar it will access the drive on the workgroup.

I just did with my work laptop which is on a domain.

You can't browse though. It won't show up in the network. But you can access it directly.

I knew I'd done this before. Old age hasn't rattled my brain too much yet.

surfasb · 16 Jan 2010

It's worth another try. I figured he's tried it before, but apparently it was trying to access the hidden share.

Barman58 · 16 Jan 2010

As has been said the old root level shares are not available in windows 7 for security reasons. If you have to access the root of the drive concerned you should be able to re-share the root of a drive manually on your XP machines (use advanced sharing).

I do this quite often and just share the drive under a suitable name - my D: drive is shared under DATA for example.

If possible it is always better if you can share at a lower level that would restrict any potential unauthorised access issues

Windows 7: Win7 laptop on XP workgroup

Win7 laptop on XP workgroup problems?