Windows 7: Win 7 not sharing with XP pc. Tried many fixes.

Hi,

I just found this site looking for info on how to do a clean install of Win 7. It was very helpfull.
There is one problem I haven't been able to solve. Though I have tried many of the tutorials.
Win 7 won't share with my XP computer on the home network.This is what I have done:
Pinged the computers successfully. Made sure the workgroup names were the same. Per one of the tutorials, I changed the workgroup from Home to Work. I created a Share on the Win 7 and
it shows up on the network.
When I click on the shared item on XP computer, I get "Access Denied". One thing I think is strange, and may be the
answer, the XP's Computer Name shows up on the Win 7 Computer and is accessable, but on the XP computer Win 7's I.D. Name shows up instead. I have to go to "View Workgroup computers"to see it. The computer I put Win 7 on is a Dell Vostro 1000.
It has an AMD Athlon 64X2 Dual Core Processor TK-55 2GHz, 2GB total memory, a
Dell Wireless 1390 WLAN mini card, with the latest driver, and a 300GB WDC Hard Drive.
Thanks so much for looking at this. I have spent days trying to figure it out.

Ron

From my experience it's because of different levels of encryption,
under your network options/advanced there should be a radial for enable 40-56 bit encryption.
This being on your Win7 Machine.

Thanks, I have already done that. I appreciate your reply.

Did you turn on Network Discovery and File and Printer Sharing in the Advanced Sharing settings of the Windows 7 machine? This should allow you to see the machine but I'm sure you checked this.

Assuming that you have the Windows 7 Users folder shared out through the Sharing tab of the C:>Users folder which is default, then XP should have access to all User folders, you shouldn't really need to set up a separate share for this.

Of course sharing problems between XP and 7 are pretty much endless so there are many different things that can cause problems here.

Yes I have the Avanced Sharing Settings set up correctly. The Windows 7 Users folder is shared out and Permissions are at default: Full Control, Change, and Read. The Windows 7 Users folder does not show in XP Network Places. I have to click on View Workgroup Computers. A this point I see the Windows 7 folder, but all the folders withen are Empty.
One of the tutorials said that all the computers had to have passwords for this to work. Another said you have to change from Home to Work network for Window 7 to work with XP. Yet another video tutorial shows that neither is necessary. WOW! This is truly confusing.
Thanks.

I can now open and see the contents of the Windows 7 folders on the XP computer. I thought all I had to do was right click the folder> Share With> Read or Read/Write, and that would do it. I finally realized I had to go to the folder and right click> Properties> Security> Edit> Add> (Added "Everyone"> and set Permissions. I was trying to share the User's folder, but the folders were all blank until I completed the above procedure on each sub folder in the User's folder. Please let me know if there is a better way to accomplish this. I wont mark this solved yet in case there is a better way.

The security tab is typically used for drive sharing across a network but it's sometimes required to use the security tab giving Everyone permissions in order to access the drives shares. For me the Security tab is already set up with the Everyone share by default, you just need to add the check marks for full control etc..

It really depends on many factors one of which is if you used the same User name and password when you set up those drives, if not then the Security tab comes in handy.

This should only need to be done at the C:>Users folder and should not be required to add those same permissions to all the subfolders. The link shows how to do this.

HDD sharing

Thanks for helping to clear this up for me. I was trying to make something that was rather simple, difficult, but it has been a learning experience.

It took me quite awhile to figure it all out as well.

Thanks for letting us know that the Security permissions helped for XP to Windows 7 sharing.