Windows 7 - SHARING PCs AND PRINTERS ON WIN 7 AND WIN 98 NETWORK

1. Download and install on Win 98 Active Directory Services Client DSClient for Win9x to enable NTLMv2 Network Authentication btw Win 98 and Win 7;

2. Open Regedit in Win98 at the key below, then create a key named LSA, then under the newly created key, create a DWORD value named LMCompatibility, and set it's value to 3.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control

3. Go to Win98 Control Panel, and open the Users applet, then create a new User Account with the same credentials (User Name and Password) as the one on Win 7;

4. Reboot your Win 98 PC and login with the newly created account. Setup shared folders or drives, and printers;

5. In Win 7 also setup shared folders or drives, and printers, then follow the guide How to make Windows 7 work with older Windows versions for networking and file sharing to select other Networking Settings;

6. Open Regedit in Win 7 at the key below and set its value to 1, then reboot. Doing this downgrades Win 7 access security, but now you can work with shared folders on Win 98 from Win 7 PC.

7. To access a USB printer, connected to Win 98 PC, set it up in Win 7 as local with 64-bit drivers, then add 32-bit drivers for sharing in Printer Prefs. Reconnect printer to Win 98, then change its port in Win 7 Printer Prefs from local to its Win 98 network address, like \\workgroup_name\printer_name ;

8. To access a shared Win 7 folder from Win 98, don't try to browse its Network Neighborhood. Instead, open it by typing it's UNC path, like \\workgroup_name\share_name in Run dialog or Win Explorer's address bar in Win 98. You can map an open share to a network drive, but it may need be remapped after each reboot;

9. To access from Win 98 a shared USB printer, connected to Win 7 PC, click on Printers in Win 98 Windows Explorer, and use Add Printer Wizard that appears in Printers window to add a network printer. Or set it up as a local in Win 98, then change its port to Win 7 printer's network address. It may be a challenge though to get connected to the printer;

10. If Win Explorer slows down, wait... If it gets repeatedly slow on each click, close and reopen, or reboot the PC. You're done! When you don't need to share your Win 7 PC with Win 98, don't forget to restore its network security settings by changing mentioned in step 6 Win 7 Registry key value to 5, then restoring to defaults Win 7 Networking Settings.