Problem In File Sharing Between Windows Vista and Windows XP

Trouble:

I recently bought an HP laptop running Windows Vista, and I have a desktop which runs Windows XP. I connected the two through a wireless/wired router so that both come over same LAN and use the same Internet connection. I was able to access internet on both, but still I was not able to access or share files across the two computers. In this post I will share with you the fix for the same problem.

Lets see the detail steps below.

Fix:

Set Same Workgroup On Windows Vista and Windows XP

This is first and foremost requirement that the two computers have same workgroup id. To check and change, on windows XP, right click on my computer, click properties, and see the workgroup id under computer name section as seen below. You can also change it if needed. The point is that the workgroup id of the two computers should be made same.

To change workgroup id in windows vista, right click on my computer, click on properties, and change it through the settings as shown in screen below:

After you are done with this step, you can now move forward to next step.

Network Settings In Windows XP

For this, right click on my computer, click properties, click on computer-name tab, and set the network setup as explained in images below:

After this, restart your computer.

Enable File Sharing in Windows XP

For this step, see this link, where we have already explained the steps.

Enable File Sharing in Windows Vista

Go to Control Panel, open Network and sharing center and turn on the settings as seen below:

After this all you need to do is to share the folders of drives and access them from Windows XP in My Network Places and In Vista, in Network. If you face any error which says, access denied, see this link.

The Result

A picture is worth a thousand words, so, have a look :

Although you may face some little problems in between at various steps, as I did, but these are the basic steps which are a must needed. Do leave your comments and suggestions below.

We hope this tutorial is useful for you.

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Author + Admin: Abhishek Bhatnagar
Hi, I am a Software Engineer by profession and blogger by passion, I write about computer tips and tricks and solutions for computer problems. You can connect with me at twitter or know more about me on www.abhishekbhatnagar.com.