Share Files and Printers between Windows 7 and XP
If you have a home network and are running Windows 7 and have XP on other PC(s) you might want to share files between them. Today we will look at the steps to share files and hardware devices like a printer.
Sharing Files In Windows 7 and XP
Sharing folders between two Windows 7 machines with the new HomeGroup feature is an easy process, but the HomeGroup feature is not compatible with Vista or XP. For this tutorial we are using Windows 7 x64 RC1 and XP Professional SP3 connected through a basic Linksys home wireless router.
First make sure both machines are members of the same Workgroup which by default is named Workgroup.
On the Windows 7 machine go into Control Panel \ All Control Panel Items \ Network and Sharing Center then click on Change advanced sharing settings.
You will want to verify the following settings under Advanced Sharing Settings for the Home or Work and Public profile.
If you want any user to have access the public shares turn off password protection. This is located in Advanced Sharing Settings toward the bottom of the list.
If you want to keep it enabled make sure there is a log in account for the other XP machines and they have a password.
Now if you go into Network in Windows 7 you should see your XP machine and the Windows 7 as well which in this case is Mysticgeek-PC.
To share the printer on the Windows 7 machine go into Devices and Printers from the Start menu and double click on the printer icon.
Next double click on “Customize your printer”.
In the Properties screen click on the Sharing Tab and check the box to share the printer and type in its share name.
If your XP machine is an x86 OS you can install Additional Drivers before setting up the XP machine.
To find the shared folders and devices double click on the Windows 7 machine icon under Network. Here you can see the printer connected to my Windows 7 machine is shared and also the Users Folder.
Continue into the Users folder and Public to see the shared folders, here I also created a folder called XP Share just to keep everything in central location.
Over on your XP machine open up My Network Places to find the Windows 7 (mysticgeek-pc) shared folder.
Double click on the Share folder to find a list of shared folders in the Public folder on Windows 7. If you have password protection enabled you will need to type in the username and password of the user account on the Windows 7 machine first.
Setup XP With Shared Printer
To set up the shared printer in XP you will need to go into Printers and Faxes from the Start menu and kick off the Add Printer Wizard.
Now select “A network printer, or a printer attached to another computer” then hit Next.
Next select “Connect to this printer…” and type in the path for the printer connected to the Windows 7 machine and click next.
Now click Yes to the confirmation message.
Then click Finish the printer to install and complete the Wizard.
In some cases you will need to install the x86 XP drivers for the shared printer because the Windows 7 drivers are not compatible with XP. When everything is installed open up Printers and Faxes to find the shared printer.
This should help you get started with sharing your files and other devices with your Windows 7 machine. When I first started I was able to see the printer on XP right away because I had a HomeGroup set up, but once I deleted it I needed to share the printer like you would for a workgroup. You might also have to do a couple restarts of the XP machine for it to see the shared resources on Windows 7. If you have had any experiences with sharing between Windows 7 and XP leave us a comment!
Daily Email Updates
You can get our how-to articles in your inbox each day for free. Just enter your name and email below:
you rock. very few people know how difficult printer sharing is between windowsxp and win7. thought i was a guru till i upgraded to rc. thanks alot man.
Hard work Geek. Good job.
Many thanks, amigo.
hello … on the windows7 machine I can see the Xp machine but when I try to connect I get an error message …
“Windows cannot access \\XPMachine – Check the spelling of the name. Otherwise, there might be a problem with your network. To try to identify and resolve network problems, click diagnose.”
thanks,
James
This is awesome! But how would you access a printer connected to a xp machine from windows 7?
spot on. worked beautifully. Worth mentioning, my 2 puters workgroups were set to different names.
Excellent! Now what I’d like to know is what theme is that on XP? It looks like a navy version of Royale?
@docpaul:
It is an official embedded theme you can download it at:
http://rapidshare.com/files/15.....d_2003.zip
@james, go back over the instructions and try to follow them to the letter. i had the same issues till i found i was jumping ahead of myself and over confident. just follow carefully all the above instructions and the printing should work.
@Aelic92, the reverse was easy for me win7-win7 should work by just going to the winxp machine, go to printer folder, right click and select connect. the win7 connecting to winxp is what i would call “reverse compatible” with older oses
My XP laptop simply tells me I do not have authority to access the Win7 shared folders when I click on one. Regarding the procedure, am I missing something or is there no point at which any folders are shared in the first place ?
I followed this, worked for Printer Share – but Folder share is not as clear if it’s not the “Public” folder your trying to share. I was trying to share my music folder on a secondary HDD with my XP machine. You have to add “Everyone” to the “Choose People to Share With” dialog in a folders sharing properties. My Xp machine could see the share – but not access it until I added this.
I want to share the HP officejet G series the windows 7 does not have a driver XP does – does other way work somehow?
@bill if you can see the printer over the network right click on the printer and select connect. that should hook you up
This is an excellent tutorial! However, I either have done something wrong in setting up Win7 in the first place, or something is weird! I have exactly the same problem as James — … on the windows7 machine I can see the Xp machine but when I try to connect I get an error message …
“Windows cannot access \\WAYNE – Check the spelling of the name. Otherwise, there might be a problem with your network. To try to identify and resolve network problems, click diagnose.”
The XP machine can access the Win7 machine just fine.
Thanks,
Wayne
I followed the tutorial and got FOLDERS to share, but when I try to share an entire drive on Vista with 7, following the same steps it says I don’t have rights. I even tried to put Everyone in the access area, restarted, same error. Any help? Thanks!
When I tried to install a network printer connected to a xp machine from windows 7, windows 7 said it couldn’t because the print spooler wasn’t running but when I tried to print a document from windows 7 it printed….
Thanks for the tutorial I have it almost working but there is one hurdle I can’s seem to get over. My XP MCE2005 machine and the Windows 7 machine network perfectly with all shared folders on the XP machine visible and accessible, and vice-versa However, my laptop is running XP Home; I can access the Windows 7 machine from the laptop perfectly. However, when I double click the laptop icon on the Windows 7 machine I get the following error message: “Windows cannot access \\laptop. You do not have permission to access \\laptop. Contact your network administrator to request access.” Any ideas on the fix or is XP home a lost cause??
By the way, I didn’t mention in my last post that the Windows Media Player in Windows 7 accesses and plays my media files on the laptop with no issues.
Thanks so much, helped a lot… when you’re in a hurry you often don’t see the most obvious things.
I have three computers running XP operating system linked together in a virtual network. The computer linked directly to the router is a desktop with XP and a canon mx310 printer directly linked. I am attempting to link my Dell Latitude D800 Laptop running Windows 7 operating system. I am able to form a link with the XP network and I can access shared files on the XP computers, but the XP computers on the network are unable to access files on the Windows 7 computer. I am looking for a way to allow the Windows 7 computer access on the network. Is there anyway to use the printer with Windows 7, I am told there are no drivers available for Windows 7.
thank you
Great tutorial, however I cannot seem to get Windows 7 to install the x86 printer drivers for Windows XP (this is for a Canon i850). When I try I get an error message stating that the driver is 32 bit and the Windows 7 OS is 64 bit, and therefore it cannot install them. So I’m stuck. Anyone else run into this issue? How did you get Windows 7 to allow you to install the x86 drivers?
Thanks!
These instructions were very helpful, thank you! However, I’m having an issue with the step “If your XP machine is an x86 OS you can install Additional Drivers before setting up the XP machine.” When I attempt to do this on my Windows 7 computer, it will not allow me to install the x86 drivers – it immediately halts the installation and complains that my OS is 64-bit and therefore I cannot use the 32-bit drivers. How do you get Windows 7 to allow you to successfully install the x86 drivers for your Windows XP clients?
“This is an excellent tutorial! However, I either have done something wrong in setting up Win7 in the first place, or something is weird! I have exactly the same problem as James — … on the windows7 machine I can see the Xp machine but when I try to connect I get an error message …
“Windows cannot access \\WAYNE – Check the spelling of the name. Otherwise, there might be a problem with your network. To try to identify and resolve network problems, click diagnose.”
The XP machine can access the Win7 machine just fine.
Thanks,
Wayne”
I have this exact same problem. Windows 7’s error messages are not specific enough to allow a diagnosis. Something else is at work here, I HAVE followed this (and other) guide(s) to the letter. XP sees win7 and connects and transfers files both ways. Win7 sees the shares on xp but cannot connect to them.
Error message1:
\\FAMILYWEST\SharedDocs is not accessible. You might not have permission to use this network resource. Contact the administrator of this server to find out if you have access permissions.
Not enough server storage is available to process this command.
Error message 2:
Network Error
Windows cannot access \\FAMILYEAST\Documents
You do not have permission to access \\FAMILYEAST\Documents. Contact your network administrator to request access.
For more information about permissions, see Windows Help and Support
So, add to MY Friday fun.
John
tnx nice tut.
I got the exact same problem as mentioned before:
My Setup is like this:
Windows 7 RC1 64 Bit + Canon Inkjet Pixma iP5000
Windows XP Home 32 Bit SP3
So I wanna have the printer shared for the XP system but I can’t install any x86 driver I can get from canon. Especially no XP drivers (windows 7/Vista drivers are not available…). So I think I need to wait for Windows 7 x86 drivers so it will work? Why the hell isn’t there a way to use already installed drivers on the xp system. The installation of shared printers automatically stops when you can’t give it a valid .inf (and I don’t know what will be valid?!). Very stupid this is.
By God man, you deserve a medal. I’ve visited all the pages you have. Not necessarily in the right order but…??? And I’ve just posted a snotty note on the Technet forums as well. Doh!
Why oh why do Microsoft make everything so bloody difficult..??
Same problem here. My win7 machine can’t connect to the printer on my XP machine. When i click “connect” like you recommend, I get an “access is denied” error even though it is set to share on the XP machine. Please help.
I read your article on sharing a win 7 printer with win xp computers on same network. My printer is a canon pixma ip5000. the xp machine finds the ip 5000 printer share from win 7 machine everything is ok until i try to install the win xp drivers on the xp machine the error message is windows cannot find suitable printer driver. I tried to use the win 7 machine to install same xp drivers for 86 machine and it gives an error message the location does not contain ip5000 driver for the requested processor architecture. I have dual boot on the win 7 machine with win xp as second operating system and the same printer drivers work on both xp machines and the network printer works flawlessly. Also the printer works fine on the win 7 machine any suggestions
iam sharing the printer & some file but not access for this
problem is network connection is not avilable
but pinging the two system is correct & workgroup, ipaddress, computer name, file sharing, all has been correct
please solve for this problem
Good work. This is a very handy tutorial on home networking between different operating systems.
One suggestion to add to this is how to Map a network drive to your computer in windows-7 and XP. Makes file sharing that little bit hassle-free.
Thanks for the refresher!
I run a small network of 3 computers – A Windows 7 machine, a XP machine (Service pack 3) and a MAC (OS X). The Windows 7 machine runs the current RC. After much mucking about Windows 7 sees both the shared drives on the XP box and the MAC and can access them. It even shows them in the network map.
The shared drive D on the Windows 7 machine is visible from the XP box and the MAC. All good, except neither the MAC or the XP box can access files on the Windows 7 machine. I get access denied – you do not have access permission. I have set up the sharing on the Windows 7 machine with full access for everyone and even disabled the Windows 7 firewall. There is no password set and both the Windows 7 machine and the XP box have the same username.
This used to work under Windows 7 beta, but not with Windows 7 RC1. The only Windows 7 area I can access is the public users folder (on C drive).
I’m no novice at this, having successfully set up networks with MACs & PCs since Windows NT4, but this is ludicrous. It really shouldn’t be this hard. Not everyone uses Vista so the Homegroups option is useless. I can see a lot of small businesses telling Microsoft to shove Windows 7 until this is fixed.
@Phil McGuire:
I agree it shouldn’t be so difficult at all. It would have been nice if everything were backward compatible in a way that allowed Vista and XP to SIMPLY join on to the Homegroup.
From my vista/xp machine, i can see the shared folder but access was denial.
I have no issues accessing the shared folders (vista/xp) from win7 machines.
is there a bug on win7?
Im still a noob in networking. So this probably is a silly question.
If I haven’t had these 2 pc’s I networked together before, will this guide still work ? I did this step by (I have linksys wireless router) but I can’t see xp computer when I check network. Only other thing I can see is Network Infrastructure Linksys WRT54GL. Both pc’s ar connected to wireles router…
Maybe there is something more I should do on xp side ?
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Good Job, geek!
Helpfull and a delight to follow through!
Well, this is half of a good tutorial but you never covered setting permissions on the XP machine so that the Windows 7 machine can access the shared files directories on the XP machine. Would you like to finish this?
thanks for this but i’m still having problems with my xp, my laptop (win7) already detects and can access my desktop (xp), but our desktop doesn’t seem to recorgnize any other units on the network. can anyone please help on setting up the network on my xp. thanks
Very useful. Helped me get my printer set up in no time.
YEAH*dancin’around*!!! worked right on, thanks!
I found a solution for my self whit error ““Windows cannot access \\”. I installe SP3 om my xp machine. At forst that was not enaf and i still got the error, but i runed network setup wizard and who-al-a, i can connect to xp machine and its shares.
So what you should do
1) Make shore you have SP3, if not then install it
2) Run the network wizard after install
Ofcourse it my not help you, but its worth a shot.
I found a solution for my self whit error ““Windows cannot access \\”. I installed SP3 on my xp machine. At foist that was not enaf and i still got the error, but i runned network setup wizard and who-al-a, i can connect to xp machine and its shares.
So what you should do
1) Make shore you have SP3, if not then install it
2) Run the network wizard after install
Ofcourse it my not help you, but its worth a shot.
Thanks a lot..you solved my 4 hours problem
I have a very weird problem. I have my printer set up on my windows 7 pc. When I try to access this PC through an XP PC y asks me to input Username and password though I’ve disabled password proteccion on my Win7 PC. It lets me in if I hit Enter. It is only when I do this that my XP machine sees the printer and allows me to print. If I don’t do it, I can’t print. Everytime I restart my XP PC I have to do that. Thankfully I only have to do once, I can print as many times as I want once I enter the Win7 PC.
Does anybody know why is this and how can I fix it?
Thanks
Thank you very much for your assistance. Sometimes remembering just where exactly is every option in different OSs is a problem. I was failing to share between two computers running Win7 and one with XP. The Firewalls were off, the permissions and security set to Everyone, Guest accounts enabled and still no luck. Forgot about the advanced network settings. Appreciate the tutorial. Many, many thanks.
If your having trouble sharing files in windows 7 with XP here’s a quick fix
right click the file or folder – share with – specific people- type “everyone” in the box – add – set permission
I have 2 XP´s at home and now 2 Windows 7 machines. One of the 7´s is not workgroup joined.
I guess from the helpful information above, its not possible to bring a domain registered Windows 7 laptop from your office and connect it to your XP home network since the Windows 7 laptop would not have a workgroup name. This would be a step backwards for me in terms of not being able to use my WinXP shared home printer from my office laptop. The Windows 7 doesnt find the XP computers, i guess due to the workgroup vs. domain settings.
i tried to rename the workgroup name to match the office domain name, without success.
no go for me. I have an eee pc that I want to connect and I can see the windows 7 machine and I have an account on it and when i click on it I get Not accessible. You might not have permission to use this network. etc.
I can see and share the files just fine on my Mac and from my Mac. Just EEE will not connect.
Thanks man. I hadn´t spotted the “password protection” option and didn´t really want to go creating the same users on each computer to allow sharing.
This will only share the contents of the “public” folder. If you are trying to share any other drive or directory you are still out of luck.
I followed the instructions with a windows 7 wireless laptop and xp home main machine. I can access all files on the windows 7 laptop but I cannot find the xp machine from the laptop nor can I share a printer. Any suggestions?
hey nice tutorial
hey man i got a situation where i cant get the win7 pc to find the win xp pc i have tryed almost everything. i changed the work group from defaul to the one that the windows xp was had, and also tryed to change the windows xp workgroup to workgroup to match the one from win7 and did not work
at one point i was able to get the windows xp computer to see the win7 computer but when i tried to join to it. it gave me an error saying that the network resource was unavailable
so as far as i can tell the win 7 and xp computers are in the same workgroup conected to same network but wont conect i tryed with 11 xp computers with same resoults
o by the way im using windows XP pro SP3 32 bits and windows 7 also 32 bits both in spanish
please any help would be realy appreciated thanks
For anyone having problems with sharing an external drive, I’ve found that you can’t share the root of the drive (IE: d:). You must make a folder on the hard drive and then share that. At least that’s how I got it to work. Although I didn’t have that issue when sharing the root of a hard drive installed in my pc.
Excellent tutorial.
“On the Windows 7 machine go into Control Panel \ All Control Panel Items \ Network and Sharing Center then click on Change advanced sharing settings.”
You can also right click on Homegroup in Windows Explorer > ‘Change Homegroup settings’ to get here.
———————————————————————————————————————————————-
I also had issues sharing DRIVES on my Windows 7 machine over the network. All shared drives resulted in access issues as many have mentioned here.
My solution: stop sharing the DRIVE and only share FOLDERS. Immediate success, I can now access my Windows 7 files over the network from my XP machine!
Interesting post.
I can do everithing right to the step ” My network places” on XP. I don´t see any folder. I only have My Web Sites on MSN. How can i do to continue this process?
I appreciate your help.
Thank you.
Oh..frustrating problem…I installed windows 7 by formatting xp,but my old TV Tuner did not work in it.Thus,i installed xp again…but im not able to boot Windows 7 again…Please help me avoid reinstallation of windows 7,as it takes long time to update my internet security again,n drivers installation like that..pleaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaase help…pleaaaaaaaaaaaaaasssssseeeeeee…
Ok, mine is even stanger. Got a new HP Laptop with Windows 7 on it, I got it hooked up to my network and I actually was accessing things on there. Now, it’s Gone! I went through these Steps again and I can’t figure it out for the LIFE of me!
Thanks, dude!
to install a printer shared on Windows xp on Windows7 you have to install extra x64 drivers on your XP machine!! after that Windows 7 has nog problems installing the network printer
Your instructions turned me into a hero! If you don’t mind, I’m going to let my wife think I figured it out all by myself. At least for tonight
Just wanted to chime-in that I *was* experiencing the ~can’t access Win7hp shared folders from XP Home~ hassle … UNTIL I added the ‘Everyone’ user to TWO dialogs associated with the share’s properties, under the ‘Sharing’ tab, both in the ‘Share…’ dialog and the ‘Advanced Sharing…’ dialog (granting ‘Everyone’ the same permissions, Read/Write, in both locations).
If I remove ‘Everyone’ from either location, my XP machine can no longer access the shares.
I’ll try it this afternoon.
Thanks, This worked Thanks a lot!
BLood, You rock!…I was going nuts trying to solve this problem for a say and a half.
Setting up the network wizard on the XP machine was the answer to my dilem. Now Window 7 can see Xp and shate the XP printer.
Thanks.
I have tried to share a printer from my Win7 x64 to my Vista x64 with no success. Any tutorial for that? Thanks.
I’m totally stumped at this step:
“Now if you go into Network in Windows 7 you should see your XP machine and the Windows 7 as well which in this case is Mysticgeek-PC.”
It’s not happening. Granted, I’m not a networking wizard, but I’ve followed all the above steps precisly, several times, over several hours checking and rechecking all the steps a dozen times or so. Have a Windows 7 laptop trying to connect to a printer on my XP desktop, but so far the laptop doesn’t even know the desktop exists.
Worked great I have one problem though on the xp machine i have to put in my win7 login to get it to work. I did as mentioned above in advance setting yet the xp machine is still asking ??
Thanks in advance.
For those trying to get an 32-bit XP machine to use a printer connected to a 64-bit Win7 machine:
– go through the “Add Printer” wizard
– choose “Local” printer instead of “Network” printer
– choose “New port”
– enter the path to the printer “\\Win7Machine\PrinterName”
It used my existing 32-bit printer driver and works fine. Good luck.
Thanks for this great tutorial
For those who dont have password,
Control Panel\System and Security\Administrative Tools\local security policy
then
local policies\security option
disable “Accounts: Administrator account status”
when it was enabled, I couldnt acces my shared drive or controlling the windows 7 remotely
But now everything works fine
BTW, my other computer is vista
I have the same problem as Barry. I do all the setting changes and then I get to: “Now you should see your XP machine on Network” I don’t see any of the XP machines I have. Help!!!!!
I could not see the XP computers on windows 7 – i have a small home network of a PC with Win 7 and 3 laptops with XP.
The first half the tutorial worked but still could not see laptops. Eventaully used add printers on XP and manually typed in the address of the printer (case matters for the address e.g. \\Grainnecourt-PC\EPSONStylusPhoto(Copy 2)
and it worked! great tutorial
Awesome detailed instructions! I was about to give up until I found your advise. Many thanks
I had the same problems not seeing the other computers at first… but once I restarted them all after the changes you recommended… everything appeared perfectly.
been several days and following this and still my XP machine cant access any files on Win 7 laptop
Win 7 see XP machine fine and acess everything great but i cant for the life of me access the laptop please help
the fix is quite simple you need to enable full trust on your xp box on your antivirus i am running norton and it was blocking it i was getting the same error “Windows cannot access \\XPMachine – Check the spelling of the name. Otherwise, there might be a problem with your network. hope this helps
I followed these procedures — from XP Desktop I can see and access files on WIN7 laptop but I cannot see the XP Desktop from WIN7 laptop network view. Could XP firewall or something else on the XP Desktop be blocking access? thanks
Nodscene
For anyone having problems with sharing an external drive, I’ve found that you can’t share the root of the drive (IE: d:). You must make a folder on the hard drive and then share that. At least that’s how I got it to work. Although I didn’t have that issue when sharing the root of a hard drive installed in my pc.
Thank you!!!! THIS WAS MY ISSUE. WHY CANT WINDOWS 7 SHARE DRIVES??? WTF?
This should be added to the tut stat!
As a few other people have mentioned, the solution to getting my shared folder on the Win7 machine visible on the XP machine was to specifically add the user “Everyone” to the list of people with whom the folder should be shared. Until I did that, I kept getting “unauthorized” error messages when trying to open the folder on the XP machine.
It would be very helpful if the author of this page would update it so that the shared folder is NOT in a sub-directory of the already shared public files but is instead just a normal folder somewhere. And then show the dialog box and options that are necessary to enable sharing of this folder. The existing step just says “here I created a folder called XPSHARE” which is not helpful at all. We need instructions for exactly how to tell Win7 how to share a folder.
I was having all the same troubles getting my XP machines connected to my new Windows 7 machine. It could “see” them but not access them. I figured out that the trouble was being caused by Symantec. Once I turned it off, it could access the XP machines immediately. Now to configure an anti-virus solution that isn’t TOO secure….
This is wonderful and it all works EXCEPT for …. when i am on one of my XP machines i can see the shared folders but cannot access them. i get the “you might not have pemissions” BS. everythin works fine. printer sharing both ways (win 7 to xp and visa versa) i can also share and access cd driv from xp to win 7 and visa versa. just not the c drive and ny folder on it. i have tryed everything. permissions,security,everything!!! please help!!!
Hey man, this is amazing stuff !! I only have one problem with this. I can access all my windows 7 laptop data from widnows xp ; however I cannot access windows xp data from my windows 7 machine. I can see the windows xp machine but i cannot access it.
How can I solve that ?
Thanks in advance.
Cheers.
Ankit.
Thanks, really great. Actually I had nearly got there myself but because the password protection sharing needed to be scrolled to find, I didn’t see it. It should be at the top!
The only thing that I could make work was installing printers as LOCAL printers rather than NETWORK
printers. After finding that solution, everything else worked. Just create a new PORT named as
\\\
And don’t forget the Windows Update button if you can’t find your printer in the list. My ancient HP
and Lexmark laser’s were in the updated lists
But this is a good start.