Home Group ...Windows 7

chev65 · 20 Mar 2010

burtie said:

The problem I have is for some reason I cannot join the homegroup. If I create one on my desktop the laptop cannot join and vice versa. All files are set to sharing. I have my desktop connected to my router by cable and teh laptop is wireless. I also have a ps3 and xbox connect to the router by cable, they can both accsess files from the desktop and laptop and play them on my tv fine. In WMP12 the laptop picks up my WMP12 libary from the desktop and i can browse and play files fine but the desktop cannot acsess the laptop libary in WMP12...this is so strange and i have tried a few things but nothing seems to work.

This can be one of two problems.
1. Click Start. Search for run and press enter. In the field, type regedit and press OK.

2. In the registry, navigate to the following key.

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip6\Parameters]
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
\SYSTEM
\CurrentControlSet
\Services
\Tcpip6
\Parameters

3. In the right pane, right-click on “DisabledComponents” and select modify. In the value data field, type “0″ (without quotations) and press OK. If the value was set to ``FF``, it was turned off.
4. Reboot your computer and it should work. It did for me.

Or try this.... Go to C:\Windows\ServiceProfiles\LocalService\AppData\Roaming\PeerNetworking and delete all of the files in this folder. Now restart the computer.

Other things to check...

Why can’t I access my HomeGroup?

There are several reasons why you can’t access your HomeGroup. Here are the most popular reasons for not being able to connect to your HomeGroup.

Your computer might not be connected to the network the HomeGroup is on. Make sure the computer has network/Internet access. Try having Windows 7 troubleshoot the Internet connection for you.
Your network location might not be set to Home. Learn how to check and change your network location if needed.
Network Discovery might be turned off. Learn how to turn Network Discovery back on.
Other computers in the HomeGroup might be turned off.
Other computer in the HomeGroup might not be sharing files. Learn how to share files using HomeGroup.
Maybe someone changed the HomeGroup password. Try checking the HomeGroup password on other computers in the HomeGroup. If the HomeGroup password was changed, change the HomeGroup password on your computer.
Your computer might not yet be joined to a HomeGroup. Learn how to join or create a HomeGroup.
Turn off any third party firewalls (usually bundled with antivirus software) that are installed on your computer.

If none of these troubleshooting tips work, try restarting your computer, or leave and then re-join the HomeGroup.

Check list for Homegroups, very good info here.
http://helpdeskgeek.com/windows-7/wi...-to-homegroup/

CarlTR6 · 20 Mar 2010

Chev, with all do respect, homegroup is easy if machine has Windows Seven. It is not so easy if a machine is XP. Once you finally get the XP machine in the group, you may find that you have to go to the MS site and download a special patch to make XP and Seven communicate properly. I repeat, homegroup was designed for Windows Seven machines as so stated by Microsoft.

I may not be as experienced as you and I have only been using Windows Seven since late December, but that is no excuse to be condescending. I readily admit I am a neophyte and learning. And one of the things I learned for myself is that homegroups is not really easy for machines that have a different OS.

chev65 · 20 Mar 2010

CarlTR6 said:

Chev, with all do respect, homegroup is easy if machine has Windows Seven. It is not so easy if a machine is XP. Once you finally get the XP machine in the group, you may find that you have to go to the MS site and download a special patch to make XP and Seven communicate properly. I repeat, homegroup was designed for Windows Seven machines as so stated by Microsoft.

I may not be as experienced as you and I have only been using Windows Seven since late December, but that is no excuse to be condescending. I readily admit I am a neophyte and learning. And one of the things I learned for myself is that homegroups is not really easy for machines that have a different OS.

Homegroups is NOT made to work with any other type of Op system other than Windows 7. This was a fact I was well aware of over 15 months ago.... do you really think I didn't know that? :)

The XP patch is so that XP machines will show up on the network map in Windows 7. Thats all it's for IMO.

So now your telling me something I already knew and accusing me of being condesending, to who I wonder? You do realize that my comments weren't directed to you or anyone else don't you? Sorry if you took them as directed towards you, they weren't at all. There were far too many people here bashing Homegroups for me to single anyone out LOL.

Thats spelled "due" respect, but remember that respect needs to go both ways and the constant Homegroup bashing I see going on here isn't cool. I've tested Homegroups on ten completely different machines for over a year now and it's worked perfectly on every one of them.

If you are having any problems with setting up a Homegroup I suggest you follow the post above yours. It contains all relevant information that I have collected for fixing Homegroups problems.

I know when to get out of these lame pointless discussions about Homegroups, I've made my point and I'll be moving on from this thread now. Have a good day. :)

logicearth · 20 Mar 2010

I've managed to have Homegroup active and running while still connecting to non-Windows 7 machine by using: "Use user accounts and passwords to connect to other computers" in Advance sharing settings.

Pikey · 20 Mar 2010

chev65 said:

If anyone here hasn't realized the advantages to using Homegroups then you simply aren't using it correctly. It's a superior way of setting up a Home network no doubts about this in my mind. There are too many advantages to list here but if you havn't figured them out by now you never will.

The Homegroup bashing I see in here daily is a very misinformed group who know nothing about using Homegroups. Show of hands, how many here have been using Windows 7 for longer than a year? ...I didn't think so.

Dead wrong there mate! I've been fiddling around with the Homegroup settings for ages and never really got it to work properly .. this is between two desktops both running X64 btw ..

I found it especially frustrating when , after re-booting either machine , the Homegroup needed to be re-created.

Oh .. and I've been using Win 7 for well over a year .. since beta days in fact.

CarlTR6 · 20 Mar 2010

chev65 said:

CarlTR6 said:

Chev, with all do respect, homegroup is easy if machine has Windows Seven. It is not so easy if a machine is XP. Once you finally get the XP machine in the group, you may find that you have to go to the MS site and download a special patch to make XP and Seven communicate properly. I repeat, homegroup was designed for Windows Seven machines as so stated by Microsoft.

I may not be as experienced as you and I have only been using Windows Seven since late December, but that is no excuse to be condescending. I readily admit I am a neophyte and learning. And one of the things I learned for myself is that homegroups is not really easy for machines that have a different OS.

Homegroups is NOT made to work with any other type of Op system other than Windows 7. This was a fact I was well aware of over 15 months ago.... do you really think I didn't know that? :)

The XP patch is so that XP machines will show up on the network map in Windows 7. Thats all it's for IMO.

So now your telling me something I already knew and accusing me of being condesending, to who I wonder? You do realize that my comments weren't directed to you or anyone else don't you? Sorry if you took them as directed towards you, they weren't at all. There were far too many people here bashing Homegroups for me to single anyone out LOL.

Thats spelled "due" respect, but remember that respect needs to go both ways and the constant Homegroup bashing I see going on here isn't cool. I've tested Homegroups on ten completely different machines for over a year now and it's worked perfectly on every one of them.

If you are having any problems with setting up a Homegroup I suggest you follow the post above yours. It contains all relevant information that I have collected for fixing Homegroups problems.

I know when to get out of these lame pointless discussions about Homegroups, I've made my point and I'll be moving on from this thread now. Have a good day. :)

Oh, I did my homework. I know that the patch is to make the XP machine display properly on the homegroup map. It is a protocol thing and the patch installs the protocol on the XP machine. See, I did read.

I only saw one post really bashing homegroups. The other posts were simply explaining the problem that MS neglected to build an easy way to include other OS's in the homegroup.

I concede I am not a very good typist; I knew it was due and not dew (nor is it do, either). :) Other new folks may read this thread who are having similar problems and they not know that MS intended the homegroup to be strictly for Seven machines.

CommonTater · 20 Mar 2010

chev65 said:

If anyone here hasn't realized the advantages to using Homegroups then you simply aren't using it correctly. It's a superior way of setting up a Home network no doubts about this in my mind. There are too many advantages to list here but if you havn't figured them out by now you never will.

The Homegroup bashing I see in here daily is a very misinformed group who know nothing about using Homegroups. Show of hands, how many here have been using Windows 7 for longer than a year? ...I didn't think so.

I'd be careful with the word "bashing"... Really... I played with homgroup and it seems to work well enough. But you can't do that if you have mixed OSs on your network... In my case... Desktop on Win7, HTPC on Win7, Netbook on XP, one laptop on Ubuntu, another on Win7 and a NAS on Linux... Good luck getting a homegroup to work with that mixed bag of tricks... Yet, good old XP style Workgroup sharing works perfectly all round.

It's not that one is better than the other... it's that they're incompatible.

Cato · 20 Mar 2010

chev65 said:

CarlTR6 said:

Chev, with all do respect, homegroup is easy if machine has Windows Seven. It is not so easy if a machine is XP. Once you finally get the XP machine in the group, you may find that you have to go to the MS site and download a special patch to make XP and Seven communicate properly. I repeat, homegroup was designed for Windows Seven machines as so stated by Microsoft.

I may not be as experienced as you and I have only been using Windows Seven since late December, but that is no excuse to be condescending. I readily admit I am a neophyte and learning. And one of the things I learned for myself is that homegroups is not really easy for machines that have a different OS.

Homegroups is NOT made to work with any other type of Op system other than Windows 7. This was a fact I was well aware of over 15 months ago.... do you really think I didn't know that? :)

The XP patch is so that XP machines will show up on the network map in Windows 7. Thats all it's for IMO.

So now your telling me something I already knew and accusing me of being condesending, to who I wonder? You do realize that my comments weren't directed to you or anyone else don't you? Sorry if you took them as directed towards you, they weren't at all. There were far too many people here bashing Homegroups for me to single anyone out LOL.

Thats spelled "due" respect, but remember that respect needs to go both ways and the constant Homegroup bashing I see going on here isn't cool. I've tested Homegroups on ten completely different machines for over a year now and it's worked perfectly on every one of them.

If you are having any problems with setting up a Homegroup I suggest you follow the post above yours. It contains all relevant information that I have collected for fixing Homegroups problems.

I know when to get out of these lame pointless discussions about Homegroups, I've made my point and I'll be moving on from this thread now. Have a good day. :)

Wow! Just trying to figure out how helpful this post is.

LADYPINKtomato1 · 20 Mar 2010

Cato hi.. thank you for your wonderful help on this.. I'm so very greatful to you and those who have tried their best to actually help me..

Cato just ignore that post..surely he didn't mean it to sould so harsh and condesending to us all.

Thank you so very much.:)
LPt

LADYPINKtomato1 · 20 Mar 2010

Chev .. hello.. I had ask for help with this project.. MINE.. I've not ever tried using a router.... much less with (OS.. Windows 7.. on the new laptop.). NOT all of us are tech savy as you are.
Plz be kind ....don't talk down to any of us especially those who are trying their best to be helpful to ME...

No doubt you totally understand what you're talking about.. it's the other percent who don't have your knowledge on this.
Now enjoy your lovely week.
Feel free to read my thread.. don't reply anymore if you have to use condesending language .. to those helping. me..

Thank you...
LPt