Open computer (my computer) on desktop. Go to organize near top left then choose folder and search options. Go to view tab. Then at bottom in advanced settings, uncheck use sharing wizard.
Now go to the folder or drive you wish to share. Right click on it and choose properties, then sharing tab. Click advanced sharing.
Now check the box to put share this folder. Enter a unique share name. If you will only be sharing to the laptop, put simultaneous users to 1. Hit permissions box and change that to your satisfaction. I personally use "everyone" and allow all permissions. OK your way out.
Make sure you have a password set for your desktop account to share from. If not, create one.
Now you can go on your laptop, open computer (my computer) and map the network drive that we just created. Examples are
\\DesktopIpAddress\uniquesharename
or
\\computername\uniquesharename
If anything is confusing or you need further help, post back.
torrentg, I'm not an expert with networking by any means, but want to double check something. If I do this, does it then mean that I can simply map network drives WITHOUT homegroups being set up?
Reason I ask is that I have 1 laptop with XP pro 32, 1 laptop with 7 Pro 64, and a desktop with 7 Pro 64. I've got a small business, which I don't have the ability to have an IT professional, so it results in me doing things myself..
Anyway, when all my computers were running XP, I never had any problems with mapping networks, as long as they were all in the same workgroup, I didn't have to give any permissions (other than the initial 'share this folder/drive') but every time I try to do something I tend to get numerous issues, and have actually resulted in not using the network at all
I have a 2TB external and a 1TB external that I use for both backup and syncing (currently using SyncToy, but am open to better options if there are suggestions)
However, if doing this means that I can bypass the homegroup entirely, man that would make things easy again...
Assuming that the answer is yes, would you then be able to disable the homegroup entirely? (I realize it's only 2 services, and they don't take up too much in the way of resources, but I'm a resouce-miser, or OS-minimalist, believing that there shouldn't be services running in the background for any reason that isn't essential to the functioning of the computer...) Anyway, thanks! Sorry to bump an old post by the way...
