Shared Folder Issues on Windows 7

I’m having problems accessing shared folders on my Windows 7 64-bit Enterprise desktop PC from my Vista Home Premium 32-bit laptop. Each time I try to access a ‘shared’ folder on my Win 7 PC from the laptop I get ‘Access Denied’.

Here is my setup:
1. On my Win 7 desktop I have the following users’ accounts and passwords setup (see below). I also have these two accounts setup in the same way on the laptop. Both accounts are members of the Administrators group and have full rights/access to everything on each PC. Each computer is on the same workgroup ‘JEEPTOWN’ as well.

User (desktop) #1 – jeep
Password – windows7

User#2 (laptop) – sarah
Password – windowsvista

Now, the only users on my network that I want to allow access to my shared folders is ‘sarah’. I DO NOT want ‘Everyone’ to be listed as having read, write, modify, etc… Only ‘sarah’ should be able to get in and read, edit, or write to my shared folders – this is just how I want it to be setup.

2. I have the Password protected option in ‘Network Sharing Security’ turned off, public folder sharing turned on, firewall turned off, and any other setting in the ‘Network Sharing Security’ section of my Win 7 PC set to ‘open’ so that just about anyone on my network should have no problem accessing any folders that I have shared (so long as they have appropriate permissions). There was one other setting in the ‘Network Sharing Security’ area that I had turned off that had something to do with HomeGroups and allowing Windows to manage it. I had turned this off because it said to do so if you planed on giving out specific sharing permissions to users – which I am, so I turned it off. Otherwise if left ‘on’ – Windows manages it, but I have already tried setting up sharing with this on and off and it didn’t make a difference – I still got ‘Access Denied’ when trying to access a shared folder on the desktop with the laptop.

Ok, now that you know what all I have configured in my network properties, let me tell you what I have done in attempt to ‘share’ a folder. Remember, I’m only trying to allow ‘sarah’ to have access to my shared folders. I may also be adding other shared folders in the future where I may want to allow ‘Everyone’ to ONLY ‘Read’ content, but ‘Sarah’ should be the only person allowed to edit, write, or modify/move shared content.

1. I created a test folder on my desktop called ‘test’.
2. I right clicked on the ‘test’ folder, went to ‘properties’, and then whet to the sharing tab.
3. I clicked on ‘advanced sharing’
4. I checked the box at the top for ‘share’ and clicked on the ‘permissions’ tab.
5. Currently ‘Everyone’ is listed in the permissions section as having ‘Read’ permissions. I removed ‘Everyone’ from the list and then clicked ‘Add’.
6. I then added in ‘sarah’ and checked the box for ‘Full Control’ and applied the changes.
7. I clicked ‘ok’ on all previous screens and tried to have the laptop access the shared folder.
8. The laptop can now see the shared folder, but when trying to open it I get ‘Access Denied’.
9. I tried re-booting both the desktop and laptop and tried again but still received ‘Access Denied’.
10. I then went to the security tab on the properties of the shared folder and added ‘sarah’ with ‘Full Control’, applied the changes, and still got ‘Access Denied’.
11. I then re-booted both the desktop and laptop and tried again but still the laptop still could not access the shared folder.
12. I then added ‘Everyone’ back to the permissions section under ‘Advanced Sharing’ as having ‘Read’ access and BAM! Now the laptop can access the test folder. BUT, …I don’t want ‘Everyone’ to have access to this folder.
13. So, I then tried running an additional test. I left ‘Everyone’ in the permissions section within the ‘Advanced Sharing’ and removed ‘sarah’ and applied the changes. I tested to see if the laptop could still access the shared folder and it could. I then went to the security tab for the folder, added ‘sarah’, and DENIED her access to EVERYTHING and tried to access the folder again and it got in just fine – this makes no sense to me. How can flat out denying a user for EVERYTHING could still give them access to a shared folder – just because ‘Everyone’ is set to ‘Read’.

Basically, the only way I can get ANYONE to access a shared folder on my desktop PC is to make sure that ‘Everyone’ is added into the permissions section under ‘Advanced Sharing’ with ‘Read’ rights. In doing this I can at least get the laptop to access the shared folder, but the laptop can still edit and make changes to the documents (even though ‘Read’ is the only permission granted) which I do not want. I just don’t understand why this is so difficult; it shouldn’t be this hard to share a damn folder with specific users on your network once you’ve made sure that the same account is setup on both machines with the same password.

I have also checked one other thing throughout this whole process and that was checking the actual account name in ‘documents and Settings’ under the root drive, because when the laptop was first purchased the username was ‘user1’. Even though I have since changed the username to ‘sarah’ it still retains the name ‘user1’ in Documents and Settings. So, I have also created a ‘user1’ account with the password ‘windowsvista’ on the desktop PC just in-case it was having a problem seeing the newly renamed account, but still (after going through all the same steps above 1-13) it say’s ‘Access Denied’ unless ‘Everyone’ is listen with ‘Read’ rights in the Permissions section under ‘Advanced Sharing’.

Argh… Any ideas are welcome! :)

All your steps sound good. You are on the right track. Renaming an account usually just changes the display name and not the actual account name. Try giving full control to user1 instead of sarah and I bet you begin to see the results you are looking for. I also tend toward using the users group instead of the everyone group this way only people you know about are getting in.

Hi,

Sorry about not updating this, I fogot all about it. I did finally get it working. I went into Computer Managment on the desktop under 'Shared Folders' and saw that the laptop was trying to access my shared folders as 'Guest'. Once I found that out I went into the control panel and turned off the guest account and tired again, but the laptop still could not get into the folder. I then went back to the area in Computer Managment to see what account name was now trying to access the shared folders and it said 'user1'. I then added the account 'user1' to the desktop PC with the same password and gave 'user1' full rights under the permissions tab in 'advanced sharing', but the laptop was still not able to get in (Access Denied).

I eventually found the final piece to the puzzel and that was that even though I had turned off the 'Guest' account from the control panel it was still using 'Guest' to verify the creditials of the laptop. I went back into 'Computer Managment' and looked at the 'Guest' account and it was still there and 'Enabled'. I right clicked on it and chose 'Disable'. I then had the laptop acess the shared folders on my desktop and it worked! I checked under the shared folders area in 'Computer Managment' after disabeling it and it was still showing 'user1' as the name that was accessing the files.

So, the rule of thumb here is that 'turning off' the guest account from the control pannel does not actually turn it off (or doesn't mean the same thing as 'disabeling'). You must 'Disable' it in order to completely rid yourself of other users connecting to your PC as 'Guest'. The other rule I learned is that after all these years Microsoft has still not fixed the issue where re-naming an account FULLY re-names it. The original user was setup as 'user1' and even after changing it to 'sarah' it still uses the name 'user1' when connecting to shared folders and credintial verification on the desktop's shared folders.

Hopfully this article is helpful to others who are having similar issues!