hkspike Posted December 3, 2007 Share Posted December 3, 2007 Could somebody please explain how to share folders on a Vista PC around a local (family) network? There seem to be numerous different areas in Vista that approach the topic but no one area seems self-contained. MS seem to have added layers on confusion here for an unknown amount of increased security. The Permissions seem to require a name added but it is far from clear if that is the user name on the networked PC or the networked PC name. Either way Vista, despite being able to see these PCs, cannot see these users.Ideas?Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hkspike Posted December 3, 2007 Author Share Posted December 3, 2007 Thanks, Temmu, for the extensive answer but I've still missed something because I get a Z:\ is not accessible, Access denied (or similar) message.What's your PS in red about? The Change Sharing Permissions comes via the Share button on the Sharing tab. Didn't we start there? It gives me a pulldown menu without sight of the external machines, just giving options of things like ASP.NETblah, Guest and me. I am the only listed name below.If MS think they have improved something here, they are very confused! And I see no gain for the complexity they have added. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hkspike Posted December 4, 2007 Author Share Posted December 4, 2007 Off to Dubai; I'll follow this up over the weekend. Thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hkspike Posted December 10, 2007 Author Share Posted December 10, 2007 Definitely need some help here!Answers for Vista seem to be thin on the ground.Here's what my laptop says if I click on a Mapped Drive:and what it says if I drill down through My Network Places:And looking at one of the target shared folders on this Vista PC:and the Change the Sharing Permissions doesn't seem much help:More help please! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goretsky Posted December 11, 2007 Share Posted December 11, 2007 Hello,Are all of the computers on your network running Microsoft Windows Vista, or do some of them have earlier versions of Windows or different operating systems?Regards,Aryeh Goretsky Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hkspike Posted December 11, 2007 Author Share Posted December 11, 2007 One (my) PC runs Vista Home Premium. All the rest run XP full patched. This PC can see all the other PCs. The other PCs can only see the Public folder on this PC. Any attempted access does not prompt any firewall access warning on this PC, merely the above warnings on the remore ones. The WorkGroup is renamed to MSHOME. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goretsky Posted December 12, 2007 Share Posted December 12, 2007 Hello,Microsoft made a change in how Windows Vista authenticates connections from other computers. A older method of verifying users, called NTLM Authentication, which was enabled in older versions of Windows was disabled in Windows Vista to increase security. As a result, connections from computers running earlier versions of Microsoft Windows (or computers running Linux, Mac OSX or other operating systems) to the computer running Windows Vista would not work because they can only authenticate using the older, less-secure protocol. In order to allow other computers to connect to the one running Windows Vista, you must decrease its security slightly in order to allow connections from the other non-Vista computers. You can do this by changing the following key in the system registry using the Registry Editor (filename: REGEDIT.EXE):[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Lsa]"LmCompatibilityLevel"=DWORD:00000001There is an excellent tutorial here along with videos which show how to set the value. There is also an article in here in Microsoft's knowledgebase discussing NTLM authentication that you might find of interest.Regards,Aryeh Goretsky Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zlim Posted December 13, 2007 Share Posted December 13, 2007 Thanks Aryeh! I just noticed you are an MVP in networking for MS. Congratulations!Had I noticed this sooner, I would have referred anyone with Vista networking problems to you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hkspike Posted December 13, 2007 Author Share Posted December 13, 2007 AryehYou are a star. Just before I do something I regret:The registry key on this Vista 32 Home Premium PC has a value of 3; the video shows it being changed from 0 to 1.Please confirm I need to change it from 3 to 1.Good to find an MVP - Vista knowledge seems a bit thin to date.Thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goretsky Posted December 14, 2007 Share Posted December 14, 2007 Hello,From looking at this and this Microsoft TechNet article on the "LmCompatibilityLevel" registry entry, it does appear you need to set the value for it "1".Unfortunately, I do not have the ability to test this myself right now, so I am afraid you will need to test it and see if it works in your environment. If you are concerned about any possible side-effects, I would suggest exporting a copy of the registry key before changing it. That way, if there is a problem, you can re-import the old value.Regards,Aryeh Goretsky Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hkspike Posted December 14, 2007 Author Share Posted December 14, 2007 Reset to 1. Rebooted.Doesn't seem to help. No time to experiment til late on Sunday.But thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goretsky Posted December 17, 2007 Share Posted December 17, 2007 Hello,Have you tried temporarily disabling the firewalls on the computers to see if that makes any difference? Also, do all the computers have an administrator privilege account on them with identical usernames and passwords?Regards,Aryeh Goretsky Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hkspike Posted December 23, 2007 Author Share Posted December 23, 2007 Thanks, guys, got it working. Trouble is, I tried numerous things at once so not sure which item fixed it. Kids happy now. So just the rest of the weirdness of Vista to fix. Appreciate your help. Merry Christmas!Andy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goretsky Posted December 27, 2007 Share Posted December 27, 2007 Hello,I am glad to hear you got things working. Out of curiosity, did you end up installing the LLTD Responder on the computers running Microsoft Windows XP? According to this Microsoft knowledge base article, it is required in order to allow Microsoft Windows Vista to recognize them for drive mapping.Regards,Aryeh Goretsky Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hkspike Posted December 30, 2007 Author Share Posted December 30, 2007 (edited) No, I didn't. All the mapping works fine. But I do have a Read Only issue that has now appeared; other PCs can open files but it doesn't appear possible to force this Vista PC to retain them other than Read Only. Don't have time for the details now, maybe later.....OK, so here's the later. 31st Dec - last day in 2007 of banging my head against the brick wall that is Vista. Sharing folders. With Aryeh help, the other XP PCs on my home network can see the shared folders on this Vista PC. But when I open any file on a peripheral PC, it opens Read Only. Here's sequence on screenshots from this PC.The general Properties dialog box for the Documents folder.Not sure why this is Read Only, I don't want/need it that way.The Sharing Properties dialog box:and people it's shared with:Permissions for Everyone allowed:Then chose to "unset" read only for all folders, sub-folders and files. Not that I wanted them read only in the first place but this is Vista:OK my way out and then a final check that the Documents folder is no longer read only:Ohps!What's going on? Anybody got any great ideas?Thanks. And a very Happy and Successful 2008 to you all! Edited December 31, 2007 by hkspike Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hkspike Posted January 1, 2008 Author Share Posted January 1, 2008 Which still leaves me with files that I can't modify from a networked PC! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hkspike Posted January 2, 2008 Author Share Posted January 2, 2008 I believe that I have actually done all of that. Perhaps my snapshot images could have been better explained. Yes, in the first instance, the folder is Read Only. UNcheck, Apply, OK. Then go through Properties again which, I think, are as you suggest though my purpose in sharing is to allow centrally held files to be edited (principally) on a laptop in the garden (it's not that cold here yet!). I can UNcheck Read Only and OK it a million times and then next time I open the Properties on that folder, it is Read Only again (which was what I was trying badly to illustrate in the image set above). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zlim Posted January 2, 2008 Share Posted January 2, 2008 Pardon me for asking a question, I don't want to insult your intelligence. You are doing this from an administrator's account in Vista? It is my understanding that the Vista normal user does not have all the administrative power that a user in XP has because of security concerns. So to make the changes and have them stick, you need to switch over to a "power user" similar to what is done in linux when you need to alter things.Since I do know much about how Vista works, when you want to work on a shared file, must you also change to a super user to do it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hkspike Posted January 2, 2008 Author Share Posted January 2, 2008 Liz, I appreciate your tact (you are after all a Diety!) but I have kids if I need my intellect insulted (and they do). As a new build PC, I have exactly one user account set as Admin. A web search suggests that I'm not the first, not stupid (ok, open to review) and this is not clear cut. It seems odd that folders are Read Only; surely it's the content that matters. I have tried to go back to basics - the separate D drive that contains the Documents folder tries to be Read Only. Told that to behave. Then the Documents folder. And so on. Hmmm.It's interesting that I have a number of question around on this forum that, under XP, would have been resolved in a flash but, this being Vista, seem to be met by a deafening silence.Right now I would recommend all to steer well clear of this OS. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zlim Posted January 3, 2008 Share Posted January 3, 2008 (edited) Although this says it is for XP, it centers on not being able to change the read only attribute of a folder, which seems to be what you are facing.http://support.microsoft.com/kb/326549/en-us Unlike the Read-only attribute for a file, the Read-only attribute for a folder is typically ignored by Windows, Windows components and accessories, and other programs. For example, you can delete, rename, and change a folder with the Read-only attribute by using Windows Explorer. The Read-only and System attributes is only used by Windows Explorer to determine whether the folder is a special folder, such as a system folder that has its view customized by Windows (for example, My Documents, Favorites, Fonts, Downloaded Program Files), or a folder that you customized by using the Customize tab of the folder's Properties dialog box. As a result, Windows Explorer does not allow you to view or change the Read-only or System attributes of folders. Edited January 3, 2008 by zlim Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hkspike Posted January 3, 2008 Author Share Posted January 3, 2008 Thanks, Liz, I had found that and a number of similar articles. Even tried it on a Vista PC but no joy! The fact is that when this main PC ran XP, this was not an issue. This is a new build PC so legacy potholes. Vista is being a pain at network sharing. I know it will be something simple stupid but I'm not there yet and I leave for Auckland in an hour. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goretsky Posted January 4, 2008 Share Posted January 4, 2008 Hello,Have you tried taking ownership of the files on the D:\ drive (or wherever the files are you wish to share) from a Command Prompt using the TakeOwn (filename: TAKEOWN.EXE) command, i.e., "TAKEOWN /F D:\" and then try accessing the files over the network? If so, did that make any difference?Regards,Aryeh Goretsky Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hkspike Posted January 7, 2008 Author Share Posted January 7, 2008 There was me thinking I owned my Computer! No I haven't tried that; what would it do? Why might it work? If I do it, do I need to return ownership of my PC?Thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goretsky Posted January 8, 2008 Share Posted January 8, 2008 Hello,In Microsoft Windows Vista, the Takeown command lets the administrator of a computer change the access rights assigned to a file so that they can be accessed by the administrator or another user.It is similar in function to the old Cacls command under Microsoft Windows XP but is a little easier to use.Regards,Aryeh Goretsky Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hkspike Posted January 8, 2008 Author Share Posted January 8, 2008 Indirectly we may be getting there. I tried TAKEOWN and got the message:"The current logged on user does not have ownership priveledges on the file (or folder) d:\"Yet I am the only user.But I may have caused this inadvertently. When I built the PC I used the name Andy (my name - seems reasonable?) then, in an act of domestic harmony, changed it to Jane & Andy.Would/could this have caused it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goretsky Posted January 10, 2008 Share Posted January 10, 2008 Hello,When you opened your Command Prompt, did you do so by shift + right-clicking on it and selecting Run as administrator from the popup context menu? If not, then the Command Prompt was not opened with Administrator privileges. Regards,Aryeh Goretsky Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hkspike Posted January 12, 2008 Author Share Posted January 12, 2008 No I didn't but I've just done as you suggested as it says "Success". But I can still alter the properties of D:\ to not Read Only, Apply, OK then re-open and, guess what, still Read Only. Is this something to do with the hidden Admin rights in Vista? Scot had an article here and I've read other stuff about secpol.msc but it doesn't seem to exist in Vista Home Premium.So I'm open to more ideas. A Google search suggests that I'm not alone in struggling to get Vista to work nicely over Networks.Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goretsky Posted January 14, 2008 Share Posted January 14, 2008 Hello,Microsoft Windows Vista still shows directories as read-only, however, that should not affect your ability to access them.Now that you have taken ownership of the files, where do things stand, networking-wise?Regards,Aryeh Goretsky Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hkspike Posted January 14, 2008 Author Share Posted January 14, 2008 Nowhere further. I can still "see" all the files from home computers on the network - and thanks again for your direction on that one - but files (such as Word ones) always open as Read Only.Vista is really beginning to bug me - it has just too many flaws. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mac Posted January 19, 2008 Share Posted January 19, 2008 Just found this article on file and print sharing in Vista. You may have to register with the site to be able to read it. It looks like it addresses some of your issues.Mac Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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