File sharing between XP, Vista and OS X on a local network

By Craig Simms on 03 June 2008

Quick Access

You're a platform agnostic type of person. Maybe even just part of a family that swings several ways. Regardless, somehow you've ended up with a few different computers on your home network, all of them running different operating systems.

While they're on the network and can access the internet fine, getting them to share files amongst each other is more complicated than dancing the Macarena in a hurricane, and you often feel just as wounded and confused afterwards. Let's see if we can get things untangled.

For the purpose of this tutorial, we're going to assume that all your machines are already networked correctly, as that topic in itself is more vast than the scope of this article can allow. For operating system versions, we have used Windows XP Professional SP2 (using the Classic Control Panel and Start Menu), Vista Home Premium SP1 (using the Classic Control Panel) and OS X 10.5.2. Procedures may vary on other versions of the operating systems.

Please note that this tutorial considers all firewalls and VPNs are turned off — if you're running one, clearing permissions there is your responsibility. On with the show!

Topics: file sharing, local, network, osx, vista, xp, smb, how to, mac os x, os x, windows vista, windows xp

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Comments (22)

  • thomasoffinga commented on 19/09/2009 01:15 Report abuse

    Thanks you sir, this solved my problems!

  • Rob commented on 17/08/2009 11:07 Report abuse

    Well, after countless hours fiddling with my new Vista desktop, and attempting to get it communicating with my XP laptop, this tutorial had me up and running in no time. It's amazing to me how Microsoft hasn't spelled out this process so plainly. Thanks.

  • Hyo commented on 31/07/2009 23:17 Report abuse

    Thanks a lot, it helped me to build our home network.

  • Leigh-AnneW commented on 09/07/2009 14:06 Report abuse

    The Vista HD mounted to my Mac OS 10.5.7 HD, but when it opened, I cannot see any files or folders. Also, when I tried to upload my PDF file from my Mac to Vista, it said that I don’t have the permission rights to do it. What am I doing wrong? Please help. Thank you.

  • norbert commented on 24/06/2009 21:51 Report abuse

    thank you, this worked. Final page about vista is what i was looking for. wth do you need to prepend the ip to the username microsoft?

    Unfortunaly now this user keeps using vista, that's a shame

  • Johnny commented on 23/06/2009 20:01 Report abuse

    A very nice tutorial, but i have one problem. i can't deselect 'use simple file sharing' because this option isn't there. Does anyone know how i can fix it...

  • Patski commented on 23/05/2009 09:53 Report abuse

    Thank you SO much for this excellent tutorial. Beautifully written and easy to follow. I'm running windows in virtualbox and was having real issues with slow apps using the virtualbox shared folders. You might add a bit about mapping a drive to your share - I had to do this to make the final link but that was easy after everything else. HUGE thanks!

  • iMurray commented on 12/05/2009 22:38 Report abuse

    A very helpful post... For some reason I didn't need to go into regedit to delete user from the login screen... That was a bonus. I added all my users via user management as advised. Then adjusted folder permissions accordingly. Worked well, I should have set the users to have their passwords change expire for that enhanced touch. Thanks again

  • vicky commented on 09/05/2009 23:14 Report abuse

    you can also visit this link for Vista and XP networking http://hubpages.com/_98321/hub/How-to-setup-LAN-between-XP-and-Vista-PCs

  • LlF commented on 22/04/2009 09:24 Report abuse

    this is the most complete and detailed how-to i find on the internet. iv searched a LOT, and with your how-to, iv finally got all my machines sharing like i wanted.
    i hope this page will not be deleted soon, ill prolly return here for future referance

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