I have two desktops, one Win7 Ultimate X64 and the other XP Pro X86, Ive setup homegroup and set the files to read only, but the XP machine is still able to delete the files from Win7, ive tried setting permissions under the security tab, but no luck. Does anyone have any ideas?
Thx
I did that as well, and no luck, im sharing by folder and giving Read permission only, do I have to give each file Read permission individually rather than by folder, or does it not matter?
Set it to "read only" for homegroup in the folder properties.
As homegroup is not supported in XP - any settings you make on the win7 using the homegroup options, the "share with ..." Etc. right click options, will not apply to the XP machine.
What you need to do is set the advanced sharing permissions for the shared folders on the win7 machine, as you are already able to delete files on the win7 system from xp the NTFS permissions may be left as they are
One thing you have to be aware of is that XP has two forms of workgroup sharing, simple and advanced.
The simple sharing is a holdout from the days of FAT drives which did not have any in-built security at a file level.
As simple sharing is not really compatible with the file permissions of NTFS drives it is not supported in Win7 or Vista.
Any sharing in XP where Vista or Win7 systems are involved must use the advanced networking function. It is also required that the file NTFS File permissions are taken into account as there can override the sharing permissions
This can get very complex due to the dual layer of access control and was the major reason for the development of the homegroup which still uses the advanced networking/NTFS file permissions model but places a user friendly front end on the use
It is possible to set the homegroup permissions and then use these from the XP system but this is very complex due to the need to create special system user groups so any XP/ win7 set-up is best left to the older advanced sharing function
Last edited by Barman58; 28 Mar 2010 at 05:31. Reason: typo
Wow thanks for all your replies, I was using workgroups initially as well as advanced file sharing, which I prefer over homegroup, but the XP machine was still able to modify/delete the files. Maybe ive setup the workgroup incorrectly, I have both systems joined to "Workgroup," XP is in advanced file sharing, Ive set the Win 7 Folder containing the files to Read only permission under advanced sharing and have the simultaneous users set to 1, can anyone verify ive done this correctly?
It sounds about right.
The question is what account names are the machines connecting under?
If for example you have the same account names and passwords, with admin priveledges, on both computers, then you have full control on the file shares by default.
What I generally do is create a limited user account on all machines, same user name, same password, and use it to log onto file shares. Since it's not YOUR account that's connecting your admin priveledges don't override the share permissions. People don't have to log into the limited account (in fact you don't want them to)... they just use it's user name and password to connect to the shares.
You, as the network admin, can continue logging in with admin priveledges giving you full control where you need it.
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