Ben's Blog World: How to share files on your Windows network

Saturday, January 22, 2011

How to share files on your Windows network

Homegroups make sharing files and folders easy on Windows 7, but Windows XP and Vista users have to do things a little differently. Fortunately, there are dead-simple ways to share files on both XP and Vista, too.

Microsoft offers a very detailed step-by-step guide for those of you looking for an exhaustive walkthrough, but here's the short version for Windows XP users:

click Start > Run, type control folders, and press enter
click the View tab, and scroll down to the bottom of the list box
place a check next to use simple file sharing and then click OK
open My Computer and browse to a folder you want to share
right-click the folder and choose sharing and security
click the warning text ("If you understand the security risks...") then click Just enable file sharing
check Share this folder on the network and give your share a name (it doesn't have to match the folder name)
if you want to allow others to edit, delete, and add new files, check the Allow box as well
click OK, and you're done!