Is there a way to file share with XP?

Freakazoid said:

For myself I just 'mapped network drives' on my 7 computer to my xp computers.

Quick way to do this is to open your windows explorer(windows key+E), go to my computer and hit Map Network Drive. This allows me to access all my shared folders on my XP systems without having to type //computername



This works for me because all the files I want to use are in the shared folder, one of these fellas can probably find you a way to access the whole hard drive but alas I can't.
This is just a quick way to automatically and quickly access the shared folders on your XP machine.

Thanks. This is the only workable solution for me. I have the same problem. Win XP can access Win 7 files through network. But win 7 can only see XP. Cannot access file inside. I have a post on another title but find this title is more useful.

Actually, this method still didn't work at the beginning. Amazingly, I change the workgroup name from "MSHOME" (for both computers) to "WORKGROUP'. And rename the computer with ALL CAPITAL letters. It was a combination of Large and small letter. After this change, still cannot access winXP files but luckily can map a network drive to one of the shared folders from XP. Not really fix but at least better than before.

I used Win7 Home premium (Notebook) and WinXP sp3 (Desktop). Connect through a wireless router TP-Link. I am quite sure it is a bug of Window. At first, I thought it was by firewall.

After the network drive being mapped, I can see the mapped folder in the folder tree. Click the folder, can see the subfolder and files. But click the computer icon, an error windows pop up and said cannot connect to that computer. It is stupid! The mapped folder is already there. Why not connected?

Sometimes,,,, right sometimes not all time, I got an error and asked me to check the computer name spelling. Error code 0x80070043. Stupid again! The computer name is auto generated in folder tree. I just click the icon. How to fix the spelling!

Maybe putting some pictures here will better describe but I don't know how.

chev65 said:

WowMike2002 said:

The entire thing is though - it shouldnt be this hard to get a simple network working, honestly.

Microsoft needs to pull there hands out of there pants and stop messing with something that already worked perfectly, Something as simple as sharing folders always worked perfectly in every version of windows - now they buggered it up and arent doing any valid steps to make it 'easier' for the general public. I shouldnt have to go through services and registry to set up ICS and whatever else on a store bought version of Windows 7 just to share some folders

Is this supposed to be my reward for posting relevant information?

Oh gosh no, sorry! Thanks - completely forgot to say it in terms with my venting! Sorry!


Just frustrated is all - Ease of use has always been the way of windows (for the most part) and theres a few blundering bugs that are just halfway aggravating =)

Hi,

first thanks everyone for posting all these, and second I am apologizing for mistakes in grammar.
I am posting here because I have similar problem like CCC above. My brother just bought laptop with Windows 7 home premium, and I am writing this on XP Pro desktop.
When he opened it first, everything went smoothly, after installing on hard drive, it connected to thomson st780 router (wireless), and W7 and XP together surfed the web. What a happy time. I thought second day would go the same way, with networking stuff but didn't.
I tried different tutorials and results were that I could connect XP to share on W7, but when I tried to open a share on XP, W7 cannot connect to this resource. Answer was : "\\name isn't accessible. Maybe you don't have permissions". Or something like that.

I can ping both computers and router, I think this mean that network is fine.
Tomorrow I will try rest of the stuff mentioned here.

Fingers cross.

Bye

Hello,

I successfully connected W7 and XP. These are things what you have to do.
Both computers have to be in the same workgroup as noted before, and both computers must ping each other (I am not sure about that but I think that workgroup name must be WORKGROUP, upper case all). After that, on XP and W7 folders which you want to share must be configured for sharing. The best way is enabling simple file sharing on XP machine ( Tools -> Folder option -> View -> checkbox). And of course folders have to be checked on for sharing (right click folder -> share this folder).

Now, when I go to network I don't see other computer icon. Why is that, I don't know, but I clicked right beside W7 computer icon and choose new network place and then type \\myXPname\share and what I saw is my new network place which is share of my XP. On XP procedure is the same, but I can go in my computer adress bar and type \\W7 and I am connected with shares.

I shared my printer connected to XP machine with W7, but you can find details about this on other page.

I hope that this will help someone.