Windows 7 - Why is the User folder shared when you share a folder?

I recently made a folder to share with an XP machine. When I look at the network through my seven machine I see the folder I shared and the USERS folder shared as well. Why is that?


I have the network setup at a home network. 7100 32 bit.

I believe vista did this as well. So Windows 7 doesnt' work any differently from Vista in this regards.

I am with ya on this copernicus... i dont like the idea of it either... another miff by MS if you ask me.

I don't think this is true. Vista shared the Public folder by default, not the Users folder.

I am now viewing both the shared folders I specifically created for sharing within my home network, and the Users folders on two windows 7 computers also, and want to know why this is happening, and how I can fix it?

What I do not see are any Public folders.

I can see and access everything within the Users folders on all other machines on the network, both Windows 7 and Windows XP, but the Windows 7 computers do not see anything on the XP machine except specifically shared folders, which is how I expect sharing to operate.

I am not using homegroup and the shared folders are on the desktop of both Windows 7 computers. Could this be the problem, that if a shared folder is created on the desktop, that it somehow magically transforms the parent folders to be shared also?

Go to control panel > Folder Options > View tab. Scroll down to the bottom and uncheck "Use Sharing Wizard (Recommended)."

Thanks for the spot on fix - can't imagine how sharing all User files when you intended only a single folder could be a "feature".