Windows 7: Sharing folderswithout creating all these local users!!

Hello,

First post here and I am glad I found this forum. I would like to be able to share certain folders on my windows 7 computer with network users. I would like to be able to do this without windows 7 creating a long list of local users that it asks me to choose from when I boot my computer. Am I wrong for thinking that it should be able to list and assign permissions for network users sepereate from actual users of this computer?

Welcome!

Just right-click on the folder you want to share and click Properties. In the Sharing tab, set the permissions to give other users access.

Give permission to who? Do I need to create a user first? If I create a user here the user shows up on my log on screen for this computer. I do not want to have 15 different users on this machine just to share a few folders on the network

Well, you can also change the settings in Advanced Sharing Settings (search for it in the start menu).

I have a simple trick that might get you around the problem you're having...

Create a "Common Account" on each of your machines... Call it say "Sharing" and give it a password... Now when someone logs onto the network they will be asked for an account name that exists on the target computer... All they have to do --no matter who they are or what machine they're on-- is enter the common account user name and password and tell the system to remember it. Voila... full sharing for everyone. (Think of it as a network wide password.)

A nice side effect of this is that you can set one set of permissions on each machine for the common account... i.e. you can make it read only, so that nobody can change anyone else's files.