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• Open File Explorer. • Windows Vista or 7: Choose Start→Computer. • Windows 8: Open the desktop and click the File Explorer icon on the taskbar; then click Computer in the Location list on the left side of the screen. • Navigate to the folder you want to share. • Right-click the folder you want to share and choose Properties. The Properties dialog box appears.

• Click the Sharing tab and then click the Share button. The File Sharing dialog box appears. • Click the arrow in the drop-down list, choose Everyone, and then click Add. This action designates that anyone on your network can access the shared folder. If you prefer, you can limit access to just certain users. To do so, select each person you want to grant access to and then click Add.

• Select the level of access you want to grant each user. You can use the drop-down list in the Permission Level column to choose from three levels of access: • Reader: A reader can open files but can’t modify or create new files or folders.

• Contributor: A contributor can add files to the share but can change or delete only her own files. • O wner: An owner has full access to the shared folder. He or she can create, change, or delete any file in the folder. • Click Share. A confirmation dialog box appears to confirm that the folder has been shared.

By Part of the joy of having a network is sharing your drives, data, printers, and folders. Vista tells you that if you want to share something over your private network, move it to the Public Folder.

But what if you don’t want to do that? You can still share the contents of any folder in Windows Vista without having to move them to the Public folder or anywhere else. Sharing in Vista isn’t automatic, and it isn’t easy. On the other hand, it is secure. If you want to ensure that no other computers on your network can see your data, it’s pretty easy: Just tell Vista you have a “Public” network. The razor wire appears like magic.

Sometimes you don’t want to move a folder to the Public folder. Maybe the contents are large and it would take too long to move them, or maybe you prefer your method of organizing your files and folders instead of Microsoft’s. As long as you’re using an Administrator account, or you have a Standard account and you “own” a folder, you can share the folder — make it available to others on your computer or (if File Sharing is enabled on your computer) make it available to others on the network. You just have to jump through a couple of hoops. • In Windows Explorer, navigate to the folder you want to share. A Share button appears in the menu at the top.

• Click the Share button. Vista brings up the File Sharing dialog box, in which you can give permission for others to get into the folder. • Choose the user you want to give permission to and click the Add button. If you want to allow everyone on your network to get into the folder, choose Everyone. Vista adds the person (or people) to the allowed list and gives them “Reader” (read-only) permission.

Remember that folks will still need to have access to your network and will still be bound by the File Sharing and Password Protected Sharing settings you established in the File Sharing dialog box. • If you want to increase the permission level for a user, click the down arrow to the right of the permission and select a different level; when you’re done, click the Share button. A Contributor is allowed to change and delete files; a Co-owner can also set permissions.

Don’t get too complicated here. Remember that you need to keep these permissions updated — if you don’t change them, they stay in effect forever. Samsung Galaxy S3 Wifi Chipset Broadcom Corporation Stock. Even if you forget about them. • Click the Continue button in response to a User Account Control message.

When Vista is finished, it gives you a confirmation message to let you know that your folder is now being shared. • Click the Done button. The new sharing rules take effect immediately.

On the Windows 7 machine we need to set up a few things in Advanced Sharing Settings. First type network and sharing center into the search box in the Start Menu and hit Enter. Then click on Change advanced sharing settings Now in Advanced Sharing Settings, make sure to turn on network discovery, file and printer sharing, and public folder sharing. Make sure these are enabled in both the Home or work and Public profiles. Depending on your setup, you might want to turn off password protected sharing.

Other wise you’ll need to enter the password for each machine in, which isn’t that big of a deal. Turning it off while you’re setting it up makes things a bit easier though by saving a step.

Set Vista Share Settings On the Vista machine we need to double check and make sure it’s sharing settings are ready to go. Right-click on Network and choose Properties. The Network and Sharing Center opens up.

Under Sharing and Discovery we need to turn on File Sharing, Public Folder Sharing, and Network Discovery. Also on the Vista machine you might want to turn off password protected sharing but it’s completely up to you. Share Files Windows 7 View Now that we have the correct settings on each machine, it’s time to put it to the test.

Open up Network on the Windows 7 machine, and you should see all of the machines on the network. The Vista machine in this example is VISTAGEEK-PC.

There was no need to enter a password to access the Vista machine because password protection is turned off. But now you can go through and see the User Shared folders. In this example both public and Users directories are shared. Share Files Vista View Now on the Vista computer, double click on Network and you should see the Windows 7 machine (where in this instance it’s MYSTICGEEK-PC).

I enabled password protection on the Windows 7 machine so we can take a look at the login screen that will be displayed before connecting. Then you’ll see the folders and devices that are shared. Here you can see the HP printer connected to the Windows 7 machine is available. And you can continue browsing through all available shared folders and files. Printer Sharing As we showed above, you can see the printer connected to Windows 7. Let’s make sure we can connect to it and print a test document.

In Vista click on the Start menu and type printers into the search box and hit Enter. Right-click on the shared printer and select Properties. Under the General tab click on the Print Test Page button. The following message is displayed while the test page prints out on the printer connected to your Windows 7 machine. Another test you might want to perform is opening a test document and making sure you can print that to the Windows 7 printer. Provided everything prints out successfully you might want to make it the default printer.

Troubleshooting If your machines aren’t able to see each other or the printer isn’t workinghere are a few steps you might want to use to determine where the problem is. Double check to make sure Network Discovery and File and Print Sharing is enabled on both machines as shown above. In this example both machines are connected to a Belkin home wireless router and IP addresses are dynamically assigned. If you are using Static addresses make sure you can ping the IP address of each computer. If not, double check the assigned IP Address and cabling of each computer If the printer isn’t working, double check to make sure you have the latest drivers for each OS installed. Conclusion This should get you started sharing folders, files, and printers between your Vista and Windows 7 system.

In this test, we didn’t need to install any different drivers for the printer like you might have to do when sharing a printer between XP and Windows 7. Results with printers are going to vary depending on the printer models and set up. Older printers are notorious for having issues with drivers that won’t work with Vista and or 7. As long as network discovery is enabled on both the Vista and Windows 7 machine, sharing documents is actually a fairly simple process. If you want to share between Windows 7 and XP make sure to check out our previous article–.