Vista Simple File Sharing for Anyone

[xenon2000]

I have 1 vista PC that I want to make my central media/file sharing point. To take over that job from an XP machine. I have several XP Pro desktops and an XP Home laptop in the network.

All my XP systems use Simple File Sharing, everything is on the same workgroup name, and the user names are all different on each PC. I know am MS article mentions having the same user names with the same passwords on every computer in the network for Vista password protected file sharing, but I am not going to do that.

XP Home Laptop can see all the file/printer shares of the XP Pro machines in the Network Neighborhood. Never asks for user/pass and just works.

XP Pro machines can see all the file/printer shares of the XP Home laptop in the Network Neighborhood. Never asks for user/pass and just works.

Vista desktop can see all the file/printer shares of the XP Pro machines and XP Home Laptop in the Network Neighborhood. Never asks for user/pass and just works.

But...

The XP Home and XP pro systems can NOT see any VISTA chares in their Network Neighborhood. UNLESS I share the Vista system default "Public" folder. But I don't want to use that folder and want to setup several other shares.

And if I manually go the to Vista system via \\VistaName\customshare , it takes forever and eventually asks for a user/pass.

Here is how I have Vista setup:

- Same Workgroup name of course.

- Simple File Sharing enabled per MS article, though these steps are not making Vista act the same as XP's Simple File Sharing: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb727037.aspx

- Wired connection with type set to "Private"

- Network Discovery "ON"

- File Sharing "ON"

- Public Folder Sharing "OFF"

- Printer Sharing "OFF"

- Password Protected Sharing "OFF"

- Media Sharing "OFF"

- Windows Firewall is "ON"

Shared a folder, only option was to add users to a list. So I added the EVERYONE account with contributor permissions.

So has anyone here been able to setup Vista so that any one with XP on the network can see a Vista share in their Network Neighborhood without having the same user/pass as what is on the Vista machine? For example, a friend or family member comes over and has access to the network, right now they can see my shared XP folders.

I want to have the same setup with Vista. So far googling and searching has left me dry.

Oh yeah, I have turned off the Vista Firewall in case I didn't have the right exceptions, same results.

[xenon2000]

http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/Windows/e...4509051033.mspx

http://www.home-network-help.com/simple-file-sharing.html - This is a nice tutorial with highlighted screenshots. Of course this is what I had already tried before I even started searching for working solutions.

So far every page/forum I find on this subject all give the exact same directions. But this method does not give me the same "no user/pass" Simple File Sharing solution that XP Home/Pro has. At the very worse, I guess I can put everything I want to share in the Public folder, but I hate the idea that I can't solve this.

[xenon2000]

I would still love to solve this. But in the meantime, I am just going to create a new Vista user, create the Vista share specific to that user and then map a drive from each XP machine until I decide what to do. I don't like this method since then I have to give the user/pass to friends and family when the come here and when I change passwords, which is often.

I am using Vista as my HTPC which is why I want my Media centralized there, but if I can't make this work, I will likely swap with an XP machine, and move the large D drive to XP and use XP as my HTPC media center.

[Scarecrow Man]

XP does not ask for a username because it automatically authenticates you as a guest. If the guest account is disabled, it will ask for a username and password.

Also found this:

Although the permissions were set to "everyone" you also have to go to the security tab, click edit, click add, type everyone in the box, click apply and that should fix the problem everyone seems to be having hopefully.

Set permissions on the folder you wish to share. Make sure the 'everyone' group has the correct permissions.

[skyline99]

I have an xp pro machine that accesses vista shares without passwords. My Vista machine has both NTFS and Share permissions set to Everyone allow read and the xp machine always connects. My guest account in Vista is enabled, and I added the Guest account to the Vista Shares' ACL and it was Guest - Allow - Read. Also I have the File Sharing Wizard disabled. Not sure what this does in vista I never used it.

Hope that helps

[xenon2000]

XP does not ask for a username because it automatically authenticates you as a guest. If the guest account is disabled, it will ask for a username and password.

That was it! Guest account is disabled in Vista by default. I enabled it and now the Vista Simple File sharing works the same as the XP Simple file sharing. Thanks. Now why couldn't the MS article on Simple File Sharing for Vista have mentioned this key part of the equation?!?! man.

Oh well, finally have Vista working the same as my old XP media setup. Thanks for finding that key part of Simple File Sharing.