Allowing XP remote access to selected Windows 7 folders?

Networking issue - Win7 printer, XP remote machines is a thread in this forum where I got some help that allowed me to share my printer (wired to my Windows 7 machine) so that the XP machines in the house could use it.

The substantive advice from that thread was to go to How to Enable Printer & File Sharing between Windows 7 and Windows XP | Windows 7 for a great tutorial on printer and file sharing between Windows 7 and XP machines.

Except - a seemingly simple task I'd like to do isn't working.

On my Windows 7 machine I have a folder with the path name "D:\My Documents\My Pictures (digital)\digital pictures\2010" Reasonably self-evidently, this folder has my photos from 2010.

I'd like to put a desktop shortcut on an XP computer in my home network so that double-clicking on the shortcut allows that user to view the contents (including subfolders) of that path. And it's not happening.

Oddly, there's another computer in the house where I have that capability, and it does work. No idea what I did to cause that to happen - obviously if I did, I'd have fixed it.

The folder in question is shared from the Windows 7 machine. The XP machine shows up in its Network and vice versa. The XP machine is able to print to a network printer connected to the Windows 7 machine.

Could someone, slowly and patiently, tell me step by step what to do to make this happen?

I've created a shortcut and typed in the above pathname as to what the shortcut was supposed to take me to, but I'm being unsuccessful.

Thanks!

I've searched google and SevenForums trying for an answer. Independent of that I did exactly what you mention and it's not worked. There are some XP computers in my house on which I can create a desktop shortcut that points into a folder on my Win7 machine, giving access to those files. But there are other XP machines where this isn't working. All the machines are able to remotely print, using the printer connected to my Win7 computer.

I'm completely at a loss to figure out why the lack of consistency, and why the approach that I'd intuitively follow for this simple task is not working.

I've left this dormant for a week, but still cannot solve it. Driving me nuts.

Again, to summarize, since I upgraded my computer to Windows 7, every other computer in the house - XP and Win7 - can access stuff on the computer, which wasn't always the case before pre-Win7.

Except for one XP laptop - which HAD been able to access certain directories on my computer before.

When I click on the link on the XP laptop, that points to a shared directory on my computer, I get this message on the XP laptop:

The drive or network connection that the shortcut foo.lnk refers to is unavailable. Make sure that the disk is properly inserted or the network resource is available, and then try again.

I'll run through a checklist of the obvious to confirm that I have right everything I think I should have:

• The shortcut on the XP computer points to the correct path/folder name on the Win7 computer
• The folder in question on Win7 is shared for everyone
• The folder in question (in fact, the entire data drive it is on) is accessible from other XP and Win7 computers in my home network
• The Win7 computer "sees" the XP laptop from "Network" and the XP computer "sees" Win7 from its network
• XP laptop can print to printer hardwired to Win7
• XP laptop and my Win7 computer are in the same workgroup
• From XP I can get to the D drive on Win7, I can see all the files/folders on D, but then I can't get down into any of the folders - even though they're shared to everyone on the Win7 machine

This is driving me nuts. I have even tried leaving it alone for a couple days, then from XP explorer accessing the folder by typing it from scratch, and that doesn't work either.

On the one hand, I'm not a networking expert - that's why I'm here asking for help. On the other hand, I have configured this share to work properly from every other computer in the house, and my XP laptop DOES have SOME access to the Windows 7 machine.

What have I overlooked?

Okay, new information - that still leaves me confused.

I can get to the D drive on my Windows 7 machine from my XP computers in the house.

But then I CANNOT get into any of the files or folders on the D drive from the XP machine.

From the Windows 7 machine I have shared the folders - and all computers are in the same workgroup - but despite the folders being shared, the only remote access I have to them is from the other Win7 machine in my house.

Ideas?

450125 said:

I've left this dormant for a week, but still cannot solve it. Driving me nuts.

Again, to summarize, since I upgraded my computer to Windows 7, every other computer in the house - XP and Win7 - can access stuff on the computer, which wasn't always the case before pre-Win7.

Except for one XP laptop - which HAD been able to access certain directories on my computer before.

When I click on the link on the XP laptop, that points to a shared directory on my computer, I get this message on the XP laptop:

The drive or network connection that the shortcut foo.lnk refers to is unavailable. Make sure that the disk is properly inserted or the network resource is available, and then try again.

I'll run through a checklist of the obvious to confirm that I have right everything I think I should have:

• The shortcut on the XP computer points to the correct path/folder name on the Win7 computer
• The folder in question on Win7 is shared for everyone
• The folder in question (in fact, the entire data drive it is on) is accessible from other XP and Win7 computers in my home network
• The Win7 computer "sees" the XP laptop from "Network" and the XP computer "sees" Win7 from its network
• XP laptop can print to printer hardwired to Win7
• XP laptop and my Win7 computer are in the same workgroup
• From XP I can get to the D drive on Win7, I can see all the files/folders on D, but then I can't get down into any of the folders - even though they're shared to everyone on the Win7 machine

This is driving me nuts. I have even tried leaving it alone for a couple days, then from XP explorer accessing the folder by typing it from scratch, and that doesn't work either.

On the one hand, I'm not a networking expert - that's why I'm here asking for help. On the other hand, I have configured this share to work properly from every other computer in the house, and my XP laptop DOES have SOME access to the Windows 7 machine.

What have I overlooked?

DocBrown said:

Did you set the folders on D: to share with Everyone ?

Thanks. That was the problem. I *thought* I had, but the problem was I was bringing "Everyone" up in my pulldown sharing menu, but then not adding "Everyone" before sharing.

Sounds like a simple thing to get right, but I was only indiscriminately getting it right. That's why directories would suddenly be shared but I couldn't repeat the process.

So for some future confused schmoe who reads this:

1. Right click > share with > specific people (I was getting this part correct)
2. Pick "Everyone" from the drop-down menu (was getting this part correct)
3. Pick "Add" (THIS was the part I was forgetting! (sometimes anyway)
4. Click "Share"

It really is easy to do. But so (to me anyway) was screwing it up.

Thanks a lot. Thread solved.