Windows-7 – Drive Shared with Everyone Not Accessible by Windows XP Computers

file-sharingnetworkingwindows 7

I'm trying to share my P:\ drive on a Windows 7 (Pro) PC with other PCs (WinXP) on my network.
I shared it and set permissions to give Everyone Full Control.

Symptoms

  • Computer XP(different computer on the network) can access \win7\users\ public (and copy files to it and edit files in that folder) but not the \win7\p:\

  • Folders I've shared on the Windows 7 PC are visible to the XP computers but just not accessible . From the other WinXP PCs on the LAN accessing the Win7 PC, I get "win7\p not accessible. You might not have permission to use the network resource. " "Access Denied".

Edit: I've to Advanced Sharing options set to have the following enabled:

  • Network Discovery
  • File and Printer sharing
  • Sharing so anyone can read/write files to public folders.
  • 128 bit encryption (perhaps this is an issue? Perhaps it should be set to 40 bit encryption?)
  • Allow Windows to manage homegroup.
  • XP machines are set to not use Simple File Sharing.

Other Things I've Tried

  • Confirmed all computers are in the MSHOME workgroup.
  • Turned off the Windows 7 Firewall, briefly. Problem persisted.
  • Tried the Windows 7 Network Troubleshooter. Just led me around in a circle saying "found problem…need more information". The links from there led back to the Network Troubleshooter.
  • tried disabling the Firewall on the Windows XP machine. No joy.
  • Verified the XP machines are both on Win XP SP3 and both have "download updates" turned on.
  • Installed IE8 on the XP machine1. (Previously it had IE 6). Still no joy.

Any ideas?

Best Answer

Try this on the Windows 7 machine:

  1. Open Administrative Tools -> Local Security Policy.
  2. Click on Local Policies -> User Rights Assignment on the left.
  3. Double-click "Deny access to this computer from network".
  4. Select Guest and click Remove.
  5. click OK.
  6. EDIT: Ensure in the Permissions for the network share, that Guest is included, since it's no longer part of the Everyone group.
  7. Use regedit to go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System and create or modify the value of LocalAccountTokenFilterPolicy (32-bit dword) to 1, so the remote logon token will not be filtered (see here).
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