Windows 7 With the latest Win7 updates, my WinXP PC is no longer able to access shared files!

[TrevorS]

I have a LAN comprised of two Win7 Ultimate 64bit (sp1) PC's and one or more XP PC's. They have been able to share files between them pretty well for many months, but with the latest Win7 updates, the XP PC is no longer able to access the Win7 shared files. They, however, have full access to the XP shared files, it's purely one way! I checked the net configuration parameters that permitted the original sharing to function and I see no changes (no password protection, same number of encryption bits, Win managed). However, when trying to access the Win7 files from XP, I'm now always told I don't have permission! All PC's are visible from each other.

Is there a solution to this nonsense? Did MS deliberately break LAN file sharing with XP? I don't know if XPsp3 also doesn't work anymore, but XPsp2 is in the dark (sp3 incompatible PC).

Thanks for any help!

 

[Trouble]

Windows 7 shares become unavailable to XP over time......
See this article and make the registry edits on the 7 machine(s) and see if that helps.
Link Removed
worked for me so it may be worth a shot.
Warning..... if you are not familiar with the windows registry then maybe get someone more knowledgeable to help.

Using the Windows Registry Editor can cause serious, system-wide problems that may require you to re-install Windows to correct them. It cannot be guaranteed that any problems resulting from the use of the Windows Registry Editor can be solved. If you choose to edit the Windows Registry please understand that you do so at your own risk so unless you feel fairly comfortable and confident you should probably not use the Editor. Changes made to the Windows Registry can take effect immediately and those that do not will take effect following the next reboot of your computer, and a current backup is not automatically made for you....So manually create a system restore point, backup the registry and export the key you are editing for safe keeping before doing so.

[/QUOTE]

 

[TrevorS]

Thanks for the suggestion. Seems odd that it would just hit now with the latest MS online updates to Win7, but obviously somebody changed something, presumably without considering possible side effects. Am very glad to have something to try, swearing at MS has limited utility! I'll let you know how it works out, thanks again!

-- Trevor

-------------------------------------------------LATER--------------------------------------------------

Very strange result. One of my two Win7 machines is intended as a media server and I'm thinking that I'm very lucky to have learned about this issue now before I clearly hit the problem. I made the Registry changes (making note of the original values) in just that one PC to try it out. I rebooted and found that sharing behavior between the XP PC and it was again working normally. However, I also noticed that sharing behavior between the XP and the other Win7 machine was also now working properly. No more permission complaints with either, normal file transfers. So, now I'm wondering just what exactly caused the problem and likewise the recovery!

I'm not going to edit the other Win7 machine's Registry for now and just see what happens over time. Very strange!

Thanks again for the info -- Trevor

 

[Trouble]

Don't ask me, I just work here.
As the article mentions, if you want to use Windows 7 as a file server (apparently just for XP Machines but maybe Linux / Unix also), you have to tell it by making the adjustments to the registry.

Apparently you need to tell Windows that you want to use the machine as a file server and that it should allocate resources accordingly.

All I know is when I ran into this issue I found the article made the registry adjustments and all was right with the world again and maybe more importantly the problem never reoccurred.