Thank you all for your input, but you seem to have missed the point, which is this: XP cannot see Win7 computers and vice versa. Nada. Not at all. Nothing. Further, I have also mentioned that I shared a printer on the Win7, that cannot be seen on the XP, and did not mention anything about folders.
As we say in NY, "fugedaboudit!"
Sometimes you have to share something to see the other PC, sometimes we overlook the obvious, since you can ping, (you have connectivity)... Im trying to help you narrow down the possibilities.
As stated in previous post, I shared a printer.
Try deleting and recreating the shared printer both on the host PC and on the clients... make sure sharing on host is set to everybody!
I have recreated the printer three times on the host. It is shared so that everyone can print to it over the network. The printer cannot be added to the XP PC because the PC doesn't see it. I have tried to add it manually, as opposed to selecting it from a list of printers in the workgroup, as it doesn't appear in that list.
It is now available on the XP. I added it by using the IP address of the host. XP still cannot see the Win7 PCs but at least I can print.
Did you set the Windows7 network as private? I don't think I miss the point at all. You won't get anything until you get the network set to the only configuration that's compatible across the OS gulf. That's the hassle. They changed how it is from XP.
In a bit of counter-intuitive parlance, MS makes the machines available to everyone if you set them as Private. If you set them as Public, nobody can see them. Got it?
Do you mean Home, Work and Public? If so, then yes, Win7 is and has been set to Home network.
Quote