Work group problem

Couldn't I just set McAfee to not run at start-up? This will at least confirm whether it is the problem or not. Since you know more about it than me, I'll be awaiting your reply. Also, if it does turn out to be the cause, I can add it to my very long list of reasons to uninstall McAfee and get AVG or MSE.

EDIT: after restarting my computer, I can't see my moms computer in network places, but it does appear on the network map, also my dads computer does not appear on the map. I read about on fix for this on Microsoft.com, but when I try to install the update, it says the update is already installed.

I disabled McAfee so that it would not run at start up. Problem fixed. Now I just need to convince my dad to let me install MSE and I'll be done.

EDIT: a mcafee icon showed up, but no detected change so far.

EDIT2: McAfee managed to still start itself, and i'm still having probs I hate it so much.

Try Autoruns to checkout your start-ups there are loots of little nooks and crannies where things start up

Autoruns for Windows

No need to install as it's a portable app

I made sure that we would be able to reinstall McAfee if needed and made sure it was cool with my mom. Dads at work for the next 12 hours. McAfee is being uninstalled and the new MSE beta is going on there.

Don't forget to switch the windows firewall back on and set the win7 machines to Home network to open the sharing ports.

Also make sure that the XP machine is running SP3 as this includes updates to the sharing system to make it more compatible with win7 & Vista

Also make sure that on the XP machine you use advanced sharing not simple sharing as Win7 does not support simple sharing

Getting rid of McAfee and installing MSE solved all my problems.