Can't Share Users Files After Leaving Homegroup

Hold off on secpol and google (maybe look but don't do)

It's harder to solve issues if you follow more than one path.

I'm taking a look at the tutorial section - there's a ton of GOOD information there.
I'll post a link to any tutorial I find that might apply and help.

Bill

These might or might not help, but they might give you an Aha!

Homegroup - Add Computer or Join

Homegroup - Change File and Folder Sharing Settings

Homegroup - Allow or Prevent Computer to Join in Windows

Take a read of those. I know you said it's when you turn off homegroups.... I said I didn't know enough about homegroups. So I started at the basics.

Then instead of me spoon feeding you links to turorials, you can get comfortable around here and do a few searches. You understand the issue better than I do so you'll be able to be more specific in your searches.

I find it easist to use the search box [google custom search] at the top of every window.
Then instead of reading through hundreds of posts, I click the tutorial tab in the results. This gets me to the known solutions faster. If I don't find a tutorial, then I look through posts.

I'll take a stab at this one: I'm not certain that you read the answer as it was given.

Without going back to revisit the answer given, I'm going to assume (bad thing) that Chev65 was being more generic - turning off the firewall is not a good idea in general.

Whether or not Public would be visible: I think it would. You might have to cahnge firewall settings to allow certain traffic through, but visible - can't say.

always depends said:

Fair enough. I will ask questions.

If the firewall is an issue, I would not expect Public to be visible for everyone, and I also would not expect the sharing to work for only the Administrator account. Is that correct? If it is, I think we can rule the firewall out of the discussion completely.

Stick around, you haven't been here that long.

Feedback is great, post what you find.
Wait till someone says "Yeah that'll work" or "No, that's a bad idea" or "Try this"

The trick is no one wants to waste their time. You don't..I don't so if you want members to help, they will. Troubleshooting is a step by step process, a few or 100s of questions are asked. Some things are tried and fail, some things are tried and succeed - that's just the nature of it.

The path of least resistance is always the easiest.
If someone asks "what is the setting of...." then the answer is "That's set to 100"
If someone says do "xyzzy" hten do xyzzy and post the results.
There are some reports that might contian information that should not be made public (look at the results of any operation and strip out anything personal befoer putting in a post)

always depends said:

I disabled the Bitdefender Total Security firewall and it did not resolve the problem. Should I have worn out my welcome here, I will return to post the answer should others find it useful. Thanks.

Ya see what I'm trying to get to?
Post 1 says firewall disabled, the post I'm replying to say I disabled Bitdefender ... firewall.
Good information, calm follow though, assuming nothing -> better faster resolution

Everyone has a different take on the issue, you might not aggree with a proposed suggestion, that's fine.
Take the time to explain your reasoning and ask if there are any other ideas that will help.

You'll get lots of ideas, some good, some not so good. It's really hard when you can't see what you see. It's also really hard when you've tried who knows how many resolutions and don't have an answer. You know all those things that your tried, no one here does, so there is a catch up period.

I'm stepping out of the thread now. I'm not adding any real value.

Bill

The usernames and passwords are the same across all PC's so this is really strange.

fyi... Have you also checked Guest? That should also be true for the Guest account too

You might try to telnet to each machine to verify logon access

/* EDIT */
p.s. If a host is set to "Not password protected", then client logon access to the host is via the Guest account

Here's something easy: Use a System Protection Restore Point (RP) to get the system back to before you tried Homegroups.

This tutorial explains the process: System Restore
Step 7 tells you how to find older RP (people seem to miss this step)

Relax.... It isn't an install - sounds like it though doesn't it?
It doesn't affect user files, it only affects the system stuff.

edit: I was too lazy to go back and read post 1 - just wanted to add that all Windows machines will have to use the above Restore Point suggestion. You probably figured that out already.