Sharing between Windows 7 and XP

First thing - do you have a password set on your Win7 computer? (A lot of people simply leave the password blank, when first installing Windows.) You must have a password on your WIn7 User Account!

doctore said:

First thing - do you have a password set on your Win7 computer? (A lot of people simply leave the password blank, when first installing Windows.) You must have a password on your WIn7 User Account!

Doctore--

Well, interesting question. My first inclination is to say, no, I don't have a password. When I got the system (it's a new one), it booted up directly to Windows without any password or logon. But then, the same is true of my Windows 7 system that is working normally. Actually, the "problem" system belongs to my sister. I got it for her for Christmas so she could use the internet safely. She has the XP system, which she loves, and which has several old programs that won't run on Windows 7, so the idea is to let her keep the XP system to use those programs, and to use the Windows 7 system for all on-line activity. I even got a KVM switch so she could use one monitor, keyboard and mouse for both systems. That all works flawlessly. It is only the network access that is giving me fits. But her system boots directly to Windows, so if it has a password, neither of us knows what it is. However, as I mentioned, the Windows 7 system I am using also boots directly to Windows, and I have never created a password for it. How would I check for that (on either machine)?

Creating a password is no big deal. You simply go to Control Panel, then click on User Accounts. On that page you will have an option to set a password for the current account.

I'm not sure how your other setup works, maybe you turned off the password protection at the advanced sharing settings? You can do the same with your sister's set-up, but it's much more complicated process than simply using a password. If you want to disable it, open Network and Sharing Center, on the left there will be a link "Change advanced Sharing settings", open it and under "Home/Work"(current profile) scroll down until you see "Password Protected Sharing", which you can turn off. Then you have to set the permissions of the folders you want to share to "Everyone".


Side Note: Your sister may also consider using Virtual Machine for the XP, using Oracle VirtualBox. I know it sounds a bit complicated, but in reality it's a very easy process and since XP is not really a resource hog - most computers would have no problem running it in a virtual machine. It would make using both 7 and XP a breeze, it would eliminate half the hardware, she can use both at the same time, etc.. Something you (or she) should really think about.

this should help you out. i also like to use the same user name and password on each computer when their is different os on the computers. Networking home computers running different versions of Windows - Windows Help

doctore said:

Creating a password is no big deal. You simply go to Control Panel, then click on User Accounts. On that page you will have an option to set a password for the current account.

I'm not sure how your other setup works, maybe you turned off the password protection at the advanced sharing settings? You can do the same with your sister's set-up, but it's much more complicated process than simply using a password. If you want to disable it, open Network and Sharing Center, on the left there will be a link "Change advanced Sharing settings", open it and under "Home/Work"(current profile) scroll down until you see "Password Protected Sharing", which you can turn off. Then you have to set the permissions of the folders you want to share to "Everyone".


Side Note: Your sister may also consider using Virtual Machine for the XP, using Oracle VirtualBox. I know it sounds a bit complicated, but in reality it's a very easy process and since XP is not really a resource hog - most computers would have no problem running it in a virtual machine. It would make using both 7 and XP a breeze, it would eliminate half the hardware, she can use both at the same time, etc.. Something you (or she) should really think about.

Doctore--

I have to verify, but I'm reasonably sure that password protected sharing IS turned off on my sister's system. I know that it is off for my system that is working normally. And since there will be only one user (well, two if you count me, while trying to help her get it set up), I have no problem with the sharing being with Everyone.

I considered the virtual machine option (I did have Windows XP Mode in a virtual machine installed on the computer I got her--Windows 7 Professional). I use it on my system, but to be honest, while it works fine for extended periods of time, it is a bit squirrely, and I've had to reinstall it about 3 times in 5 years. In addition, running things in a Window, especially old DOS programs which she has a couple of) isn't very satisfactory. Then, of course, there is the issue of having to reinstall everything, even if it works perfectly. It may be something that she can migrate to in the future, but having the redundancy is handy, especially if I can get the networking to work, since each computer can serve as a sort of backup of critical files for the other. I do that with mine, and it has saved my bacon a couple of times, when I inadvertently deleted something, or lost a file due to a careless error. And, of course, it is not absolutely necessary that the network work both ways. It is working fine (except for the two drives I mentioned originally, which I will pursue in more depth if I can get the rest of it working) so it is possible to use the Win 7 computer to move files either from the Win 7 machine to the XP machine, or to move them from the XP machine to the Win 7 machine.

To be honest, part of it is simply the frustration of not being able to figure out what is preventing it from working as it should, rather than the lack of an ability to find a workaround. Stubbornness is one of my failings, I fear.

oscer1 said:

this should help you out. i also like to use the same user name and password on each computer when their is different os on the computers. Networking home computers running different versions of Windows - Windows Help

Oscer--

Thanks. Someone else gave me a link to that article, and I THINK I have done everything it says (though, and I mentioned to Doctore, I need to verify that I have Password protection turned off. I at first was concentrating on the firewall issue (and that still may be a problem, because Norton Internet 2015 has mind numbing sea of firewall settings--and so far, I haven't found one that identifies the ports by number.) However, I tried turning the firewall off completely, just to verify that the firewall was the problem, and the problem persists with the firewall completely off. It has to be some setting on the Windows 7 system that is causing the problem, because I can access the XP system from the Win 7 system, but cannot access the Win 7 system from the XP system.

I will go through that checklist again to double check that all of the settings are correct, and let you know what I find.

I appreciate your input. The more folks we have looking at this, the more likely someone is to see something I've missed.

Ok just set log in name and password the same on Xp system and win 7 computer the same. See if that helps

Doctore and Oscer,

Well, an update with good news. I've got part of the problem solved. I checked the "Turn on Password Protection" setting in Windows 7, and lo and behold it was ON. So I turned it off, then went to check to see if I could now access the drives from the XP machine. When I clicked through to the Workgroup subfolder of the My Network Places in Windows Explorer, and clicked the plus next to the Win 7 system, the drives appeared (previously, this is where I got the "not accessible" message.) Joy reigned supreme, but only temporarily. I then clicked on one of the drives, and got the "not accessible" message again. However, buoyed by a small bit of success, I went back to the Win 7 system to recheck everything. It all appeared to be as it should. But I had read in a Win 7 book that both sharing permissions AND NTFS permissions could cause a folder not to be accessible. So I checked the Security tab on the drives that I wanted to share. Sure enough, they listed the Administrator, and "Authenticated Users" (whatever that is). So I took a chance and clicked the ADD button, and typed in Everyone. Then when Everyone appeared in the list, I checked the box for Full Control. Then went back to the XP machine, and tried again. This time, SUCCESS!! So now I can access the Win 7 drives from the XP machine. I very much appreciate the help and suggestions of both of you.

Now, on to my other problem, which I mentioned in my original note, but which I put aside as we worked on the access problem for Win 7. And that is, that on the XP machine, I have set up 5 drives to be shared. Windows 7 accesses three of them with no problem, but I get an error when I try to access either of the other two. One is an NTFS internal drive, and the other is a FAT32 external (USB) drive. When I try to access either of them, I get a fairly long (30 seconds or so) delay while the little colored circle "busy" cursor appears, then a message that the drive is not accessible. The odd thing is that below the error message (but in the same box) is a line that says "There is not enough memory to process this request," (or words to that effect). If it will help, I can get the exact wording of the error message. Any idea what could be causing this? I assume it is a setting on the XP machine, since that is where the inaccessible drive are located. I thought I would take a look at the Security tab on the drives (since that was where I found the fix in Window 7), but quickly discovered that the drives in XP don't have a Security tab. In doing some searching, I found something that said the security tab is only available if the system is in a domain, rather than in a workgroup. You can make the Security tab appear by going to the Folder options, Advanced Settings, and selecting that the computer is in a domain, but while that gets you a Security tab, of course, it is not true, since the computer is in a Workgroup rather than a domain. You have been helpful so far. Any ideas on this issue?

Great! I knew we'd get it going...eventually :)

XP doesn't have security tab, it's called Sharing. Right-click on the drive and select "Sharing and Security..."
Screenshot:

yeah good news on the progress so far