File sharing possible without passwords?

The thread title pretty much sez it all. I did a search on this topic and a brief scan but couldn't find a thread that was specific to my needs.

I have a very simple home network -- well, it's simple now, at any rate. It consists of one desktop machine and one laptop, both are running Win7 Ultimate. The desktop is running x64 and the laptop is running x86. The desktop is hooked up to the router via a network cable and the laptop has a wireless connection.

All I want to do is be able to freely share files between the two machines without having to pass through screens that require me to sign in with user ids and passwords. Is this possible in Win7? Used to be, I could just indicate which drives I wanted to share over the home network and that was all I needed to do. Not anymore, apparently. Heck, even the sharing process has gotten complicated.

So far I haven't been able to figure out how to get to first base. I'm being asked for user IDs that I'm not sure I have and passwords that I'm pretty sure I've never received. I suppose "Admin" is always a fall-back ID, but when it comes to passwords, I have no idea. I've been putting all this off for the longest, reverting to "sneaker net" with a flash drive instead of biting the bullet and seeing if I can get the machines to talk to each other the way I want.

Now, just to complicate things a bit further: the desktop dual-boots between Win7 and XP (I'm keeping XP on it for some legacy hardware I use that Win7 doesn't support). When I'm in XP, is there a way to accomplish this same feat between the desktop and laptop?

And to complicate things even further : I also have a machine on the network that doesn't get used very much that is running Ubuntu Linux. I don't suppose it would be possible to pull off this same feat with a Linux box, would it?

Hopefully, this is a simple matter, cuz my network vocabulary is very limited. I am not very fluent in network-speak. If there's a tutorial here or somewhere on the net that you're aware of that addresses this sort of thing, if you would be willing to point me in that direction, I'd sure appreciate it.

Under advanced sharing settings in network and sharing, drop the arrow for all networks, you will find 'turn off password protected sharing'
Also check in control panel, system...where it says Workgroup, there is a 'change' button, all your machines need to be set the same, 7 default is Workgroup, XP default is usually MSHOME...

Password Protected Sharing - Turn On or Off in Windows 7

Thanks for your reply. I have password protected sharing turned off on both computers and both are members of the same network or workgroup or whatever you want to call it.

When I try to access one of my notebook's drives from my desktop, I get a "Network Error" popup, which states "Windows cannot access \\notebook\c" for example. Sez I don't have permission to access it, contact my network administrator, blah blah. Interestingly, a "Users" directory is shown as if it were a drive, and is accessible, but there is nothing in any of the folders there -- which is not true with the actual "Users" directory. So that's strange. And I can also access the DVD drive and files on any CD or DVD in it, but that's the only actual drive that I can access. I've double checked sharing permissions for my drives and they're all the same, which is to say I've allowed "Full Control" for "Everyone" under Advanced Sharing > Permissions.

When I try to access my desktop from my notebook, I get a "Windows Security" popup, telling me to "Enter Network Password" with blanks for my user name and password, then it shows "Domain:" followed by the name of my notebook, a check box for "Remember my credentials," and beneath that a white x in a red circle with "Login failure: unknown user name or bad password." This popup appears when I click on the icon for the computer -- it doesn't even let me get to the drives.

So it seems that I have two separate problems and I haven't a clue why I should be having either.

There's a side issue that might be causing some of this. My notebook machine is a hand-me-down from my daughter who bought a faster one and who gave me hers after she busted mine. I have never been able to fully remove all traces of her from that computer and it would appear that it is virtually impossible to do so. Seems like when I finally think I have all traces removed, whoops, here pops up another reference to her. For example, when I was taking a look at the notebook's advanced settings, I noticed I didn't have media sharing turned on (I do on my desktop), so I activated it, and there pops up her name again in the little window that asks whose name should be used for the media lists or whatever. So I'm wondering if, even though I have myself set up as "administrator" on both machines, maybe my notebook deep down somewhere thinks I'm not really, and might be causing this problem, or at least part of it?

When I upgraded the notebook to Win7 I should have just done a clean install, but because it was running Vista I took the easy way out. And I'm dealing with these leftovers issues as a result.

I have a follow up to this. With the "Windows Security" popups, I entered my name as the user name, and it likes that, cuz its accepted and stored it. I entered the p/w associated with my Homegroup, and it wouldn't take it. I went and double checked that this was the correct password and it was. So I'm wondering, what p/w is this security popup looking for? I don't have a p/w associated with my ID and I don't want to have to enter a p/w just to access my personal computer. I'm the only one who uses it.

Also any advice on the whole "Windows cannot access \\notebook\c" business?