I’m trying to set up a workgroup with two computers: my desktop (Windows 7) and a laptop (Windows XP). What’s happening does not make sense to me.
The workgroup is set up and I’m trying to share one drive (my data drive) with read-only privileges in each direction. That is, the account I use on the desktop should have read-only access to the laptop’s data drive, and the account I use on the laptop should have read-only access to the desktop’s data drive.
On the desktop I opened the data drive’s Properties dialog and selected the Sharing tab. The tab said that the drive was not shared, and the Share button was disabled. I clicked the Advanced Sharing button, opening the Advanced Sharing dialog.
On the Advanced Sharing dialog I checked the Share this folder box, enabling the other fields and buttons. I let the share name default to the drive name, reduced the number of simultaneous users from 20 to 4, and clicked the Permissions button, opening the Permissions dialog.
Permissions initially shows that Everyone has Read access only. I clicked Add, opening the Select Users or Groups dialog. My intention was to add my laptop username to the share permissions, then delete Everyone. In Select Users or Groups, Object Type defaulted to Users, Groups, or Built-in security principals. That was correct, so I left it alone. I clicked the Locations button to change From this location from the desktop to the laptop and got a list that contained only the desktop. Thus I could not proceed.
This seems to indicate that the desktop does not recognize the laptop’s presence in the workgroup, but that does not seem to be so. The navigation pane in Windows Explorer lists both computers under Network — twice each!
On the laptop I disabled simple file sharing, then went through the same procedure as on the desktop, and got the same result (the Locations dialog lists only the local computer, in this case the laptop). Again, Windows Explorer lists both computers under Network, although here it shows each only once.
At this point I should have password-protected read-only access to each computer’s data drive from the other, since Everyone still has read-only permission. But it isn’t working that way.
When I try to access the desktop’s data drive from the laptop, Windows Explorer lets me access Entire Network > Microsoft Windows Network > Workgroup > computername > Users > username. It requires me to enter a username and password to get to the computername, as it should. Once I’m there, though, I see a list of files and folders that includes My Videos, My Pictures, Downloads, etc., and a few files that are probably configuration files for applications. The data drive is not there.
When I try to access the laptop’s data drive from the desktop, the reverse happens: when I select Network > computername[/i] I am not prompted for a username and password, but am simply given access to the “folder.” It contains three items: the laptop’s data drive, SharedDocs, and Printer.
What’s the trick to making this work right?
