File sharing between Windows XP and a Vista computer

Seems there are a number of people having problems sharing files between their Windows XP and Windows Vista computers. Me included. So after some research and playing around, I have finally worked out how to share my Vista files so that XP users can access them.

First things first

With the release of Vista, the default workgroup is MSHOME, not WORKGROUP like it is in XP. So make sure both PC’s are on the same workgroup before attempting to share files between XP and Vista.

In XP, go to Control Panel > System. Then on the “Computer Name” tab, click the change button, and edit the workgroup to be the same as Vista (MSHOME).

On the Vista machine

First go to the Network and Sharing Centre and make sure you have file sharing turned on. Having your network set to Private also helps.

Then go to the folder you want to share and Right-click on the file to bring a menu up > Choose Properties > Then Sharing. Click on Advanced Sharing. More details on how to share a file.

Click the Share this folder check box, and then click Permissions.

The Permission window should open.

Click on add to add a user. Then type in guest in the textbox that says Enter the object names to select.

Click Check Names which should then find Vista’s guest account and prefix your PC’s name in this format: YourComputerName\guest.

Click Ok to go back to the Permissions window.

You should now have the Guest account under group or users names.

Highlight the guest account and give it the relevant permissions. (Full control, Change or Read)

Click Ok and your done!

This is how simple file sharing worked between Windows XP computers , and now you can have it enabled for Vista too!

For those more experienced users – it’s the guest account that needs to be enabled to allow simple file sharing between XP and Vista.