Win7 laptop on XP workgroup

jonmitch · 16 Jan 2010

Hello everyone.

Apologies if this is a simple one that has been answered before, but I'm hoping someone can point me in the right direction.

I have a lovely new work laptop running Windows 7 Ultimate. It is set up as a Domain pc.

I have a home network with a number of PCs (Win XP) and a couple of Macs, all connecting via a workgroup.

With my old work laptop (also XP) I simply did "Start", "Run", then typed in "PCName\c$" (where "PCName" is the name of my main home PC). This no longer works from my new work laptop (Win 7).

So, any thoughts ? Is this possible, or have I fallen foul of the MS upgrade path ?

Thanks for any help or advice,

Jon

RedBirdDad · 16 Jan 2010

Welcome to Seven Forums!

It looks like you want to get the W7 machine up on the workgroup.

It's actually pretty easy. There's a tutorial for it here at Seven Forums.

Workgroup Name - View and Change

Give this a try and let us know how it went.

Good Luck!

jonmitch · 16 Jan 2010

Hi,

Thanks for the reply. Sadly, the Win 7 machine is on a domain (my work domain), and the tutorial states that the Win 7 machine will be permanently removed from the domain when I add it to a workgroup.

Or have I missed something ?

Thanks,

Jon

chev65 · 16 Jan 2010

This tutorial will help you join your Windows 7 machine to your existing Domain. :)
I believe that joining a Domain works better if you are running Win 7, Ultimate, Professional or Enterprize.
Connect your computer to a domain

RedBirdDad · 16 Jan 2010

jonmitch said:

Hi,

Thanks for the reply. Sadly, the Win 7 machine is on a domain (my work domain), and the tutorial states that the Win 7 machine will be permanently removed from the domain when I add it to a workgroup.

Or have I missed something ?

Thanks,

Jon

Domains, ok. That does present a challenge. Are you looking to share a folder on the workgroup?

RedBirdDad · 16 Jan 2010

chev65 said:

This tutorial will help you join your Windows 7 machine to your existing Domain. :)
I believe that joining a Domain works better if you are running Win 7, Ultimate, Professional or Enterprize.
Connect your computer to a domain

He's already on a domain at work. He wants to access his home network which is a workgroup. Unfortunately you can't be a member of both.

jonmitch · 16 Jan 2010

Hi,

Yes - Laptop is set up for my work domain. My home PCs are all on a Workgroup.

Main aim is to be able to browse the PCs (and Mac) on my home Workgroup from my work laptop, without removing the work laptop from the work domain.

I had a feeling this was going to be a tricky one ....

Thanks again for any and all help & advice. I can't believe I am the only one in this situation ?

Jon

surfasb · 16 Jan 2010

The easist way to do this is to address your home computers by IP address.

\\IP address\Share Name

To address them by name will take a bit more work. Your computer is part of a domain, so by default, Windows appends the domain name to the end of UNCs. Like if your work domain is Cubicle.net, then when you type \\HomeCompy\Share, you'll get

\\HomeCompy.Cubicle.net\Share

chev65 · 16 Jan 2010

Yes that would present some problems I agree. The easy way would be to create another partition on your HDD for Win 7. One set up for the workplace domain, the other set up for the Workgroup at home.

This statement comes directly from the pros at TechNet.
The only way to do that with a single machine would be to dual boot the operating system. Have you considered using RDC or VNC to connect to a non-domain machine and use it for this purpose?

Hal
If you don't want any connection or sharing problems I would follow Hal's advice.
http://social.answers.microsoft.com/...b-8a454e93d8ff

jonmitch · 16 Jan 2010

Hi,

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

Does that little back-door no longer work from Win7 ?

Thanks,

Jon