How to Share a Folder or Drive on the Network in Windows XP |

How to make a Simple File Sharing on the Network or Workgroup in Windows XP

How to use Simple File Sharing to Share a Folder or a Drive on the Network or Workgroup in Windows XP

1. Go to My Computer or Windows Explorer, find an appropriate Drive or Folder to be shared. (On my example, The Drive HD-PUC2 and OK Folder).

2. Hover or put the cursor to the Drive, right-click then select Properties.

Go to Sharing Tab, to activate sharing of the drive, click “If you understand the risk but still want to share the root of the drive, click here”. (Risky, because your not just sharing certain folder, but all the contents of the drive itself.)

3. For some instances, it will asked whether you want to use the Wizard or to “Just Enable File Sharing.”, choose Just Enable File Sharing, to begin sharing to Drive or Folder.

This will lead you to Sharing Properties, go to Network sharing and security. Then to being share the Drive or Folder, check the box Share this folder on the network. Then the Share Name (if you want to put a name, or used the default). If you want to allow other users on the network to makes changes on the files and folders, check the box Allow network users to change my files.

Click Apply and Ok afterwards.

4. After all are set, you will see a hand on the drive or folder that being shared. (This signifies that the current folder or drive is already shared).

You can now share it, by typing your own IP address to other computer in the network.

(For an example, Go to Start > Run > then type \\192.168.1.100) then you will see the shared folder or drive on it on the other network computer.

5. We are not done yet, if you wish to make it sharing across the Workgroup, to do this, go to Start > Settings > click Control Panel > double-click System > then click the Computer Name Tab, then type Computer Description like your Name for an example.

Click to Change, then at Computer Name Changes you can type your own Computer Name, it must not match on your Windows Users Account name. (if you have Windows User Account Name – noname, then you may not used it on computer name on workgroup)

Then click on the Member Of Workgroup, then type corresponding Workgroup name of your choice. If you want to make it work, all the computer on the network, must have same Workgroup name in each other.

Restart your computer, and other computer in the network if necessary for the Workgroup Name changes. You may even restart your router and switches. 🙂

6. To access the Workgroup, go to My Network Places, Entire Network, then Microsoft Windows Network, then Workgroup of your choice, then click it. You wll see the list of Users connected on the Workgroup on the Network.