Windows 7 F$ sharing?

[FeeSimple]

Windows 7 sharing is the most complex crap to deal with...
Here is my problem...

I have multiple computers on a local network, dealing with only Windows 7 Ultimate. One is acting as a file server, others are workstations.

The server has a 2nd hard drive, totally dedicated to files that are shared. That hard drive contains 3 folders, two of which I want to share with everyone on my local network, and I can get that done no problems. (I have shared each folder individually, they are not inherited sharing permissions from root).

The third folder, I only want to share with one workstation, but no matter what I tried in the security/permissions options, it would either share the directory with everybody, or nobody at all... very frustrating... Lastly... and this is somewhat mind boggling... I had sharing turned on to that folder, on the workstation-I made a short cut to one of the files, I then turned off file sharing to that folder, the folder disappears from the network shares as expected... HOWEVER.. when I go back to the workstation, the short cut has added a f$ to the path.. IE... "\\server\f$\my docs", and the shortcut still works, and allows access to the file and any files within that folder.. through \\server\f$\ even though the folder is not even shared... this seems like a windows bug to me... the 'f' in that may be represenative of the drive letter (It's F: on the server).. but the $dollar sign and full access to the folder is baffling.. with sharing turned off.

Ideally... I want this one single folder to be accessible to only one workstation computer.. through a username/password scenario.... is this asking to much?

Why do they make this crap so difficult? I should be able to to right click.. share... what username.. what password.. boom done.

 

[Saltgrass]

You say you want to share one folder with only one workstation. Is there only one user allowed on that workstation? I think you share folders by users or groups, not computers.

Don't know about the $ except that Windows uses it to represent certain types of files, usually hidden or system folders in some circumstances. Did you restart the network and still have access?

Could you map the drive to the one workstation?

Since I am not an expert on network operations, maybe someone will know more.

 

[FeeSimple]

Saltgrass,

I have 5 other computers on this network. I don't care if they can see all the shares available from the server, but I have one personal work folder on there that I only want to be able to access, I don't want the other people to have access to it... (Then why not have it on my own computer? Well the server hard drive is backed up and redundant, and sometimes I want to be able to access the files from other workstations if necessary).

For whatever reason, windows either wants to share it with everybody, or nobody at all, even if I go into security and change ownership, or select only to share it with User[MyNameHere].

It actually is functional the way I want it.. "as is".. the share is just hidden.. but its a little disturbing how the server thinks its not sharing the files.. and yet I can access all of them by adding a f$ to the path..