Creating a share user
First we want to create a special user to access any shared files and folders. So return to your User Accounts Control Panel, and click Create a new account. For the sake of this article, we'll call it share. Click Next, make it a Limited account and click the Create Account button. Click on the created share account, select Create a password, and enter something accordingly. We're going to be boring for the sake of the article and use the password share, but you'll want to choose something more secure.
Setting up the limited share account.
Hide the share user from the Welcome screen
If you're using the classic CTRL+ALT+DEL log-on screen, then this isn't needed and you can go on to the next section. If you're using the Welcome screen however, you might want to hide the share user from the log-on screen to keep things neat — after all, it should never have to log in locally.
Let's banish the share user from the Welcome screen.
Once again we'll need to visit the Registry Editor for this piece of magic, so click the Start button, click on Run, type regedit and hit the Enter key.
Once there browse to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\SpecialAccounts\UserList, right click in an empty portion of the right-hand pane and select New and then DWORD Value. Enter the name of the user you don't want to turn up on the log-on screen (in this case, share), close the Registry Editor and then logout. The extra user should now be gone from the list. Note that this will also hide the share user from the Control Panel > User Accounts page — you'll need to access it from Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Computer Management, the go to Local Users and Groups and finally the Users section to administer it, or remove the registry key you just created.
Turn off Simple File Sharing
Next we're going to turn off Simple File Sharing, to access finer security and sharing options.
First you'll need to open Windows Explorer (usually found under Start > Programs > Accessories). Once loaded click on the Tools menu, select Options, then click on the View tab. Scroll all the way to the bottom of the list, deselect Use simple file sharing (Recommended), and click OK.
Disabling simple file sharing.
Create a share folder
Now we're going to share a folder. While you can use an existing one, for the sake of this tutorial we're going to create a new folder called share in the root directory of the hard drive (usually C:\).
Right click on the share folder, and select Sharing and security. Click the Share this folder radio button, and give it an appropriate share name.
Sharing the share folder.
Click the Permissions button, select the Everyone entry and click the Remove button — this ensures that any other accounts local to the machine will not be able to access the folder remotely. Now we're going to allow the share user you created earlier to read and write to the share folder.
Click the Add button, then click the Advanced button. Click the Find Now button, then select the share user from the list and click OK. Click OK once more, then make sure the share user is selected above and click the
Selecting the share user for permissions.
Click the Security tab next to the Sharing tab. Click the Add button, then the Advanced button, then the Find Now button, select the share user and click OK. Click OK again, make sure share is selected in the user list, and then set what permissions you want the user to have below. Click OK when you're done, and the share should not only be visible on the network, but fully open to the share user once logged in.
Giving the share user total control of the folder.
Finished with XP
XP should now be set up for sharing. Feel free to add any other folders using the relevant steps above. To find out how to connect to a Vista or Mac share from XP, please proceed to Connecting to the machines. To set up a Mac or Vista machine for file sharing, read on!
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canberra_photographer
07/06/2008 06:02 PM
Difficult? File sharing in my experience has proven surprisingly easy with Mac OS and XP. You know how I got an XP SP2 and Mac OS 10.5.3 machine to network? I connected them to my network, enabled file sharing on both using the right click menu and... no, that's it. They worked fine. Didn't have to adjust firewalls or anything.
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Kubbin
10/06/2008 10:52 PM
Thank you...just the info I needed
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mohammed
15/09/2008 09:52 PM
Save your network passwords for xp
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