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!
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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.
Does this work if i am using Windows XP Media Center Edition
My old Brother MFC had network and USB connections. I couldn’t install the MFC from its original CD on my Win 7, since there are no suitable drivers, so my other machines (XP) are connected to the MFC on the network but the Win 7 is connected by USB.
I also found as others have that the Win 7 and the XP machines all have to have Everyone with Full Control in folder share settings and in advanced settings. Then everything works in both directions.
Thanks MysticGeek and everyone else.
I was trying to print wirh my printer hooked to xp from a computer running windows 7. I followed all the above directions. It keep saying it could not find the driver. After many hours I got it to print by adding a new port: Open ports in the printer on windows 7. add new port on local port, in enter a new port type: \\name of your xp computer\printer share name.
“First make sure both machines are members of the same Workgroup which by default is named Workgroup.”
Ok, I can see the name of my workgroup on the XP machine. I don’t see any such information on the Win 7 machine though. A little fuzzy here at the moment. Thanks.
I’ve the windows xp pro & window 7 pro hooked up via dlink router.. the win 7 machine cannot access the xp pro files , though xp machine can see files of win 7 machine.. any ideas.. Thanks.
“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”
Hmmm. Now that all in the same Workgroup, I hoped this would work. My XP machine is not showing up in this list at all.
These instructions were great!
I replaced my old XP pro with a new Windows 7 machine. This machine also acts as my print server with an RX500 printer attached. Using the supplied Win7 drivers the printer and scanner are working. However, when I try to install a network printer to my existing XP boxes this fails. I understand I may need to install the XP drivers on the Win7 box – but I can’t seem to make that work. I called Epson support and they gave me the following work around.
Make sure you have sharing set on the Windows 7 box. Then, go to the Epson site and download and install the printer drivers for the XP machine – in my case for the RX500 that was
Printer Driver v5.5bAs
Windows XP, Windows 2000
epson11326.exe – 7.7MB – posted on 02/01/05
After this, you should see a new local printer in the “Printers and Faxes” on the XP box. Right click on this printer and select “Properties”. Select the “Ports” index on this dialog, select “Local Port” and press the “New Port…” button. This will pop a dialog asking for the port name – enter
“\\Windows 7 Machine Name\Printer Name On Windows 7″
where you put your info into the fields. The match is case sensitive so you have to type the printer name exactly as it appears in your Windows 7 box. Then select that port for this printer and print a test page. This worked for me – I’m now printing from my XP box to the Win7 attached RX500.
Imaging away / flick
I am having the same problem as some of you…can’t get Windows XP printer driver to install on Windows 7, thus XP computer in my network can’t use the shared printer. I tried what Flick suggested on Nov. 23 with the workaround for his Epson; install printer on local port on the XP machine. I got the error message “The specified network name is longer available.” I am 100% sure I typed everything completely right including upper/lower case. Then someone suggested I try the exact same thing using the Win7’s computer IP address instead of its name. I tried that and it did work…but then when I turned off both computers for the night, in the morning the Win7 computer had a new IP address so the printer didn’t work anymore on the XP machine. Help!
Thx!! at first, I thought it’s very hard to connect this two computer together. But after following your precedure, IT’S DAMN EASY!! Good Job~
Hi,
I had the same problem with sharing as Wayne.
I could SEE the public folder and other shared folders on the Win 7 computer from my Vista computer BUT, I could not access them.
I went to to the folder and right clicked properties/Sharing Tab/Advanced Sharing option >> clicked Share this folder >> clicked permissions >> add >> everyone >> Allowed Read …… and still couldn’t access, UNTIL ….
I went back to the folder, right click properties >> select Sharing Tab >> select [Share ...] button >> select ‘Everyone’ from drop down >> select [Add] button >> chose ‘Everyone’ from list >> selected ‘Read’ under permission level ….. Then it worked, finally !
Very good article, a good follouo would be , “how to add a windows 7 pc to an existing XP network”
Re
7 and XP networking I can not get past the Network password window on the 7 PC nor can I eliminate it.
No password will work.
I have a desktop running XP SR3 and an a laptop running Windows 7. The XP machine can see and access the Win 7 machine and its files. The Win 7 machine in network can’t see the XP machine but can in full map but can’t accesss files on XP machine. I have told the XP firewall to allow access to the machine I have downloaded the LLAD or whatever MS said was needed for the XP machine to be seen or accessed. The Win 7 machine can print to my network printers just fine. I only need to be able to access files on the XP machine from the Win 7 machine. I turned off password protect in Win 7 I told XP to share its drive and files. I am out of suggestions.
What about permissions on the xp box? Well I know about them but probably many do not. Still having problems with browsing and I think it is because 7 insists on loggin in on the wrong domain and I know XP will not allow that..sigh..does MS ever test this buggy software??
So how do you tell 7 to log in on the workgroup instead of the homegroup that has a password window?
the XP is an administrator signon So I activated the Windows 7 Administrator account with the same password as the XP machine because I read both machines need the same logon and password. Both are in Workgroup. Still the Windows 7 cannot access the XP although the XP can access the Win 7 fine. Any ideas?
Mark
I seem to have the same problem.
Do you keep getting the network password window where no password will work?
I totally removed my firewall and now I can get to the computer and can drill down but when I get to the Adminstrator files it says I don’t have permission. So something must be set wrong on the XP machine sharing. I will check and let you know.
My Win 7 recognized my wireless network and automatically joined the WORKGROUP.
I have what seems to be the opposite problem from those above. Got a new windows 7 desktop. Hooked up the old printer to it, found a good enough driver. My XP laptop can print fine (probably still using the original driver). But it can’t see the new desktop at all. Can ping it by number but not by name.
I was thinking of taking down my workgroup and starting from scratch but I can’t even figure out how to do this.
Tried all the above could not get it to work,when I clicked share this printer in Win 7 kept getting error code 0×000006d9,googled it and came across someone who had same probs,his answer to problem was to turn on Windows firewall if disabled ( as mine was,using Norton),try sharing printer again,then turn off Windows firewall,and Lo and Behold it worked,followed mysticgeek`s walkthrough and all ok.
Hope this helps anyone who gets the same error message as I did.
Mick.
This is an awesome tut, however when I come to the add additional drivers section Win 7 can’t find the driver for the X86 OS. Also I don’t have the disk for the printer. When I try to install the Win XP drivers manually it says error.
Regards
Trebor
My printer is on the XP computer. I have no problem sharing anything (within the normal limits, of course) on the Windows 7 machine with the other computers and I can access the shares on the XP machine from the Windows 7 machine but I just get “Access Denied” trying to use the printer on the XP machine.
The other XP machine (free roving laptop) has no problem using the shared printer.
Great Article mate !!!
Thanks for this help but I ma still having an issue. I have 2 networked Media players that rely on using shared folders. Even though I have followed these instructions I still can’t get them to see the shares, if I boot into XP (Dual boot machine) then no problem. Any help very gratefully received. Thank you
This is easier — at least for me and it worked. The shared printer is attached to a Win 7 x64 box and the XP is x86. Credit Jimbo45 at sevenfourms:
I’ve posted on this before but to share Printers attached to XP computers with either X-64 or X-32 versions of Windows 7 is SIMPLE. These instructions are for the Printer attached to the XP machine (but works in reverse as well).
(”Stand alone” Network printers can be done slightly similarly BTW).
assume the computers are call XPMACHINE and W7MACHINE.
1) Ensure Printer on XP machine is shared – assume it’s called SHAREDPRINTER.
2) On the Network Browsing on your Windows 7 machine ensure you can “See” the Printer share.
Now on the Windows 7 machine do the following (doesn’t matter if it’s X-86 or x-64).
3) Control Panel==> add LOCAL (Yes LOCAL) printer. I know it’s on a Network but hold your horses — what we are actually doing is “Poodlefaking” the Windows 7 machine into thinking it’s running the printer.
4) Create NEW port==>Local port
5) Portname is \\XPMACHINE\SHAREDPRINTER
6) Now Windows 7 will load a driver and you’ll be able to print on the XP machine.
Simple
(For a “Network stand alone printer”) at 4) chose TCPIP port
and at 5) enter the IP address.
If the printer is on the Windows 7 machine and you want to print on the XP machine then do the same instructions on the XP machine —
port name in this case will be \\W7MACHINE\SHAREDPRINTER
Barkdust45 You Rock!
That did it for me. Adding the local port allowed me to print.
A challenge for some who have posted comments appears to be mastering proper spelling and punctuation techniques. For example, this is not the best place to use text-messaging style abbreviations.
Acquiring the skills and discipline to compose coherent paragraphs and comprehend detailed instructions will also strengthen a persons ability to circumvent Microsoft’s ubiquitous networking hurdles.
Mike was right… in order to solve the ” XP ” machine can’t see the Windows 7 folders, drives, follow his message about setting the ‘Everyone’ with read and write permissions. I can’t believe how buried that solution was. Crazy… Windows advances in some aspects with each iteration of the OS, but it always seems to make some things so much harder than they were before… no?
Thanks Mike and others who’ve taken the time to share their solutions.
I have been able to get my printer recognized across all my Win 7 and XP machines. Thanks! However, I still cannot get Win 7 to see my XPs on the network. XP can see Win 7 (mostly), but Win 7 acts like it is completely alone according to the Network page. Any ideas?
Awesome article. Very helpful and straightforward. Thanks for the effort!
Thank you! This worked like a dream!
Thanks thanks thanks.
These are some of the best-written instructions out there. I don’t ever comment, but wanted you to know that they’re really great. Thanks.
God bless you sir. Your instructions provided 95% of the solution. For those who may have a problem (as I did) with completing the printer setup (basically windows 7 refused to recognise the driver for the xp machine) the following two links will be useful
http://www.labnol.org/software.....ters/9530/
http://superuser.com/questions.....dows-7-x64
Thanks again
The problem with installing x86 drivers on my x64 machine (as shallowly shown above) is that, while I’ve got my HP 5550 installation disk, I have no idea how to navigate to the “driver” it wants, even after trying just about every path on that disk.
(Sorry, cut my comment off early…) And yes, I tried the Whitston links provided above, but W7 doesn’t want to install just the driver (via an edited .inf file), but it wants an ntprint.inf file as well to complete the storing of the x86 driver (on my 64-bit host) to make available to XP computers asking to use the W7-attached printer.
This is all just a big mess, at least for the HP deskjet 5550 series and HP’s latest drivers, etc. doesn’t help any.
A thousand blessings for your instructions. It finally worked. As a support person for gazillion people, the sharing of my downloads folder is very important. That’s where all of my utilities, drivers, etc. are located. Again, a thousand blessings for you.
i have problem .. my printer sharing is on win2k .. my client is win7 .. the printer on win2k sharing with password. from win 7 i can see the win2k but when i want to access .. it ask the password right ?
so the problem is win7 can’t login even the password is correct so i can’t add the printer on win2k on my win7 .. can you help me ? thanks
Excellent tutorial, thanks!
Hmmm on my Windows XP this resolution still doesnt work
I struggled for hours to connect my new laptop to my PC, until I found this website. THANKS GUYS!
Great Tutorial, I only had two problems.
1. The “Windows cannot access \\WAYNE ” which I fixed by turning off the Active Armour firewall and using the windows firewall on the XP machine.
2. I had to run the Set up Network wizard on the XP Machine before it would recognise the 7 machine. I supposed that this was because the original network was an Internet connection.
I haven’t yet tried to use the printer sharing as my printers are network connected, but they do appear on the network as shared printers; But “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it” seems the best policy.
Hope this may help somebody.
After an hour of struggling with this I found my solution!
My XP machine could not see my WIN 7 machine, but my win 7 machine could see my XP machine.
I work with networks for a living and I was convinced there was a bug until I decided to look elsewhere.
My Symantec AV 11 has a feature called “NETWORK THREAT PROTECTION” it was in these options there was an option tic box that says “share my files and printers with others across the network” after this was checked the Networking was enabled.
We have 2 hp (psc1315/laserjet1200) printers, connected to a mini notebook with Windows XP 32 bit on it (serves as sort-of-printserver). My brother got a new PC with windows 7 64 bit.
One of the printers I installed on de Windows7 64 bit PC by directly connecting it (the other printer is to heavy to move) and it worked, then I put the printer back with the XP 32 bit notebook.
The 2 printers on the XP are shared and the other computers in the network (XP/Vista/7 32 bit) can all print on them, but the Windows7 64-bit sees the printers, but says it cannot communicate with te printers.
I think it is because it needs 64 drivers on the 32-bit XP computer to work, but a) I’m terrible at finding drivers, and b) in XP when installing extra drivers for a shared printer it only gives options for XP ME 2000(old systems), no options for Vista and Windows7…
Anyone tips/links/usefull forums???
My thanks. I struggled for an hour. Read other forums for an hour. Then found this article and your advice worked within 5 minutes. Greatly appreciated. Paul M.
It worked thanks
A lot of thanks! It works.
Trine:
These instructions did not help me, either–but I did find a fix. Here is what happened with me. I tried to download the LLTD from Microsoft’s support site (See Step 2 below.), but Microsoft’s installer told me that I already had SP3. Some searching revealed this fix: http://forums.techarena.in/vista-help/972126.htm, which I followed carefully. (Quotation follows.)
> > I had this same problem and am still trying to get Microsoft support to
> > determine why it does not seem to be in SP3 like they say.
> > However, I found two ways to deal with it.
> > 1. If you install the LLTD before you install SP3, it works fine.
> >
> > 2. After installing SP3 or when you do a fresh install of XP SP3, even
> > though the protocol won’t self install you can install it youself by
> > first
> > extracting the files from the windowsXP-KB922120-v5-ENU.exe file. See
> > this
> > article.
> > http://support.microsoft.com/kb/828030
> >
> > In the folder where you extract to you will find a folder SP2QFE.
> > Open this and you will find the required files.
> >
> >
> > Then copy the rspndr.sys to C:\Windows\System32\Drivers folder,
> > rspndr.exe to C:\Windows\System32 folder.
> > rspndr.inf (inside ip folder) to C:\Windows\Inf folder
> > Then open a Command prompt and navigate to the C:\Windows\System32
> > folder
> > and type rspndr.exe -i This will install the LLTD responder.
> >
> >
> > –
> > Paul
Next, I enabled the LLTD from the Network Properties window (shown in the Microsoft link).
Things still were not working properly, so I did some more searching and found out that, in my case, it was necessary to enter the desktop’s IP address in the networking address bar on the laptop. Obviously, Microsoft technicians could have resolved this issue–or at least posted a few more instructions. I am finding out that a lot of people have encountered this issue.
Thank you, Mysticgeek.
As usual, you know what you’re talking about! Love ya! Thanks!
Great tutorial.
Now my problem is I have laptop Win7 and desktop win2000 server.When I go to networks on both w2000 & W7 I can see my laptop and desktop. I can access files from W2000 but when I click W2000 from W7 it pops up a “enter network password” “enter your password to connect to W2000Server (my W2000 computer name)” gives two input boxes forusername and password, below it says “Domain: Laptop (my laptop computer name), a check box to “remember my credentials” and an error message “Log on failure: unknown username or badpassword”
Can you help?
Great tutorial, but still have problems! I am trying to share a Canon MP 780 from a Windows 7 64 bit computer with a Windows XP Home/Media laptop (32 bit). I have been using Network Magic for file and printer sharing in the past and get as far as trying to finish the connection with the laptop and the printer but at the point where the installation is asking me for the printer driver for the x86 I cannot find the correct inf file that is requested. I have tried getting online drivers (both 32 and 64 bit) and using the CD that came with the printer. I cannot get past this step to get the printer to link up. I have tried installing the printer locally and then editing the port to a local port with the correct computer name and printer share name to no avail.
Can anyone help?
Thanks
Thanks man, help me a lot.
Hi,
I have tried what all you mentioned here…I am not able to see XP machine on my Lap which has Windows 7. I remember that I had seen the XP initially.. but later when I could not print to the printer connected on XP machine which is connected with my lap through a Netgear router I noticed of missing the network. I tried many things…but could not make my network PCs appear… I can ping the ip of XP machine which is assigned by the router.. but my lap with W7 cannot find the XP PC. I have NOD32 firewall running… in both machines. Moreover I can access internet through router without any issues… so connectivity to router is not blocked by firewall..
Appreciate to have your immediate help please……
Back in the good old days of Win98/2000/XP I thought it was a no-no to enable file sharing. If I follow these instructions will it open my computer up unwanted activity from the internet?
I can’t seem to figure out how to connect my Windows 7 laptop to my XP desktop connected printer. I get an error that the driver can’t be found and when I try to install Windows 7 drivers on the XP machine,
I get another error that the drivers are not compatible with XP. I really want to be able to print from my
Windows 7 laptop.
Right my solution for the ‘cannot access pc’ problem, i.e. when the tutorial says now you can see the folders in My network places and you can’t.
1. Check your firewall, I have Mcafee on both PCs and Mcafee was set to treat the PCs as a trusted network.
2. However, trusted network in Mcafee speak still blocks shared folders, basically had to fiddle round in the advanced firewall settings and change the specific IP address from public network to trusted network.
3. Problem solved.
Props to Network Magic for diagnosing the fault correctly.
When I get to the step in this article of going to Devices and Printers and double clicking the printer icon, I do not get the next step to come up i.e. being able to double click on “Customize your printer.” Am I missing something in the procedure? All went fine until this step. Hence, I can’t get any further in the writeup
Carmine D’Ambrosio.
On my windows 7 PC I can connect to my XP PC and I can see the printer there. But when I click on it to connect, windows says it can’t find the driver. So I went online and installed the driver but when I try to connect, it still says I need a driver.
Any ideas?
I found your web page fantastic! However I am still trying to connect my win7 laptop to my WinXP printer. Everything seems fine except Win7 cannot find my printer driver. I beleive it is because HP Photosmart 7760 driver is called 7700 series on XP, and 7760 on win7.
I tried to go into printer properties on both machines to add additional drivers, but cannot find drivers. Any ideas?
hey, this page is great. But i’m trying to connect to a printer (that is on a windows 7 computer) through my Windows XP laptop. I can get to it fine, but when the pop-up that talks about printer drivers i say continue and another pop-up comes up saying it can’t find the xp driver file, then it comes up with a screen to locate it….don’t know where the .inf file is.
So i download the driver from the net, go into the setup and turns out that the printer doesn’t have a port cause it can’t connect and therefore can’t install the driver 0_o can anyone help?
my windows 7 can see my xp and access everything but my xp cannot see my windows 7. i’ve tried sharing with EVERYONE. but it still does not even recognize the windows 7. please help.
I’m trying to connect to a printer in a win xp machine from my win7 laptop. I can connect and I installed the printer and I’ve transferred files back and forth, but when I click to print a test page I get an error back right away that it can’t print. The troubleshooter has no idea what the problem is. It looked like this should be fairly simple, but for some reason it’s not. Any ideas? I’ve successfully printed from other win xp machines so I know the printer is set up correctly.
Thanks,
Mike
the best solution for win7 & winxp sharing folder and printer
thanks for solution
All,
I don’t work on printers, but I do work in the Windows group at MS. I had a massive problem getting the following scenario to work:
1. New Win 7 Home laptop (64 bit / x64 / amd64)
2. XP desktop with an HP printer attached (32 bit / x86 / i386)
3. Sharing the XP printer and printing from the Win 7 laptop
The post above by ‘Barkdust45′ and ‘gw’ helped me out.
I’ve also noticed that if the drivers aren’t on Win 7, you can plug the printer into the laptop have WU (windows update) find the 64bit driver and then once that is done you can do the steps that Barkdust45 mentioned.
Thanks SOOOOOOOOOO much! For a non-techie, this is just what I needed. Why isn’t it this simple on the Windows website?
I’ve been trying for hours to connect my XP laptop to my Windows 7 computer’s shared folders – it kept asking for a user name and password. Problem solved thanks to this page! Fantastic thanks!!!
i can’t see my xp computer in the network folder on my windows 7 pc even though they’re both a part of the same workgroup by default (WORKGROUP). my setup is that they’re both connected to a router
thank you barkdust45. It took me a while to actually find a post that worked. I currently have a kodak esp5 printer on an xp machine and could not for the life of me get my windows 7 laptop use the printer. I could see the share but it would not network. I made sure that the windows 7 drivers where installed on the laptop and did as you instructed and it worked perfectly. thanks again.
i have a problem with a new computer i got with win7. i have a network set up and my old laptop could print over the network (wifi) but the new win 7 laptop sees the printer but cant connect or said it does but if i try to print is said can not connect to the computer. is there instructions to connect a win 7 wifi computer to a win xp pro computer with the printer on the win xp machine?
Barkdust45 – good solution. Thanks. I copied your answer to windows7forums.com.
I am having a similar problem as everybody else. I just installed Windows 7 on my computer that is connected to my modem and wireless router (Dlink 615). In my basement I have a computer running Windows XP SP3. Up until today I had no access to the Win 7 computer from the XP computer. It was working fine, then I left for less than an hour and it doesnt work anymore. On the Win 7 computer, sometimes I have access to the XP computer sometimes I don’t. Seriously, I will have access to it, refresh, then its gone or I get the error message “Windows cannot access \\BASEMENT – 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.” I have tried turning off the firewalls on both computersand nothing changes, I’ve done several tutorials and read several message boards and I cant figure it out..PLEASE HELP!!!
OK first of all this did not work. I disable password protecting for shared folders and the windows xp machine STILL askes for a password. Next when im on the windows 7 in the adminstration account and i go to the shared folder in network it doesnt let me change anything…. someone tell me how i can remove all these damn security settings when I AM LOGGED INTO MY ACCOUNT ON MY COMPUTER?!
You ‘da man Geekster. Just got my nephew a new Win 7 laptop and wanted to share 9GB of all my old mp3’s. The IOmega would not copy thru USB (why’s that?) and no firewire on new HP Win 7 machine. No DVD burner on my old laptop and too tedious via CD’s. Now we can do the mindmeld. Very Vulcan.
I m unable to connect the printer from window 7 to xp PC where the printer is installed and connected. Can somebody help me?
thanks
Worked perfectly. Thank you for taking the time to post this for us.
Mike, Thanks! your solution to the “problem of sharing drives on windows 7 aside from the public drive” worked! I can now see my shared WIN 7 folder on my WIN XP boxes. I’ll copy your solution to add “EVERYONE” here:
I went back to the folder, right click properties >> select Sharing Tab >> select [Share ...] button >> select ‘Everyone’ from drop down >> select [Add] button >> chose ‘Everyone’ from list >> selected ‘Read’ under permission level ….. Then it worked, finally !
This helped me 95% there. I have a W7 64-bit with Dell Photo AIO 944 printer connected (running in compatiility mode) and a WinXP 32-bit. Machines can now see each other. W7 can print. But I cannot get the WinXP machine to print. *sigh*.
I have a new Windows 7 and 2 other machines running XP SP3 home – FINALLY!!!!! got yhem all sharing the one printer, which is really useful when the XP machines belong to high school students – thanks because I couldn’t get the network to work following mayone else’s instructions.
Mike – you may need to do the “add printer” steps and check you have the software for the printer installed on your XP machine. It only finally worked when I downloaded the printer drivers for XP machines.
Oophs – sorry about the typos in my earlier comment
Many thanks Pal. I was led to believe that Win 7 to XP sharing was really problematical. Almost did a clean installation as a result. You saved me a lot of hassle.
McAfee Total Protection Service has a Firewall Connection Type option page.
Make sure to select the appropriate connection type (when installing McAfee) prior to Networking any XP, Vista and Win 7 computers. Basically, in incorrect Firewall setup will not allow other computers on the Network to gain access to a computer with the incorrect Firewall Option selected.
Remember when in doubt about a Firewall issue, just temporarily turn off the Firewall.
Ken
hi, this tutorial is the best on the net, however i have one last problem with the printing. i have a vista laptop and 2 xp desktops, and they have all connected to the printer and everything, but everytime i try to print i get an error message saying “printing error…cannot print with current setup” i used the printer CD on both the vista and the XP computers. not the message no longer comes up, instead it says that its printing but when you look to see whats printing, it says that an error occured on the files that were printing. do u know whats the cause of this problem or how to fix it?
best regards
viktor
Followed it step by step didn’t work.
I followed it step by step and it didn’t work. I can’t even see my XP box on my Win 7 box. What’s up with that?
WONDERFUL!!!! I probably spent 3 days over the last 2 weeks trying to get my Netbook to print to my home network. I went through the above instructions and solved my problem withing a few mintues!!
Thanks a million!!!!!!!!
Tried all these options but it was only after a 1 hour 50 minute phone call with Microsoft Technical Dept that they found an answer. My Problem was that my Windows 7 PC could not access files or printers on my XP PC across a local area network (through a wired router).
Got error message saying “you don’t have authority to access XP PC – talk to Network Administrator”. I hope the following will help anyone with similar problems.
1. Make sure that both PCs are members of the same Workgroup – I called mine “WORKGROUP”.
2. Make sure that you share all the Folders and printers across all users on your network and check on the Permissions section of the Security Tab on the Sharing option that you have given access to “Everyone”.
3. Now this is Microsoft’s solution – you have to change one Registry entry on the XP PC.
4. Make a backup of your Registry before you start
5. On the XP PC Do Start/Run/regedit. Then do File/Export and save to your Desktop.
6 Now locate the following Registry entry:-
My Computer / HKEY-LOCAL-MACHINE / SYSTEM / CurrentControlSet / Control / Lsa and change the Data Value of “RestrictAnonymous” to 0 (Zero).
7. Then save the new Registry.
8. Then Re-boot both PCs
9. Viewing the Network option using Windows Explorer on the Windows 7 PC and double clicking my XP PC, I could now see all my Shared Folders and Printers and following some of the instructions posted on this topic, I could even print to an old Mono Laser printer attached to the LPT1 port of the XP PC.
ARG!
I followed this set up, I got the win 7 machine to see my XP machine. I shared the printer, got it all set up. Went to the XP machine, added the printer that is connected to the win 7 machine. I opened up notepad typed some gibberish, clicked print and it printed just wonderfully!! YEAH! Now I moved on to what I REALLY wanted to print and it would not print. Grumble. Went to check the win 7 machine and it was no longer connected to the internet. It still said it was connected to the network but had no internet access, what this has to do with it not printing I have no idea! But it would not print. I had to shut it down, unhook the wireless adapter, restart, then hook the adapter back up. It connected to the network, and the internet, went back to the XP machine and tried to print again, again no printing occurred and the Win7 machine was again no longer connected to the internet. Can anyone help me with this? Anyone have any ideas at all?
Accessing XP printer on Win7 PC:
For those of you having problems networking with your XP pc, my problem was that somehow my “Server” service was stopped. So you might wanna check and make sure that’s up and running.
For those of you who don’t know how: start > run > type “mmc” > hit enter > File > Ctrl-M > highlight “services” > click add > click finish > click ok > click “services (local)” > right-click the “Server” service and click “start” (if it’s not already started)
Thanks, that helped a ton.
Answer to the following from James
Question
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
answer
1. Open the Start Menu.
2. In the white line (Start Search) area, type regedit and press Enter.
3. Click Continue for UAC prompt.
4. In regedit, go to: -HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Contro l\Lsa
5. In the right pane, right click LmCompatibilityLevel and click Modify.
NOTE: If it doesn’t already exist, create a DWORD value named
LmCompatibilityLevel
6. Set the value to 1
7. Reboot
Voila now we can log into the XP shared dirs and printers from windows 7
HI, thanks for ALL the work you put into this. It all makes sense but can you offer any guidance on where to obtain Windows XP drivers (an .inf file is requested) and how they can be installed?
Peter
Thanks for this, you almost solved my problem and provided the clues to complete the solution (5 hours elapsed).
Problem: Printer on Win7 machine, XP machine on net to use printer.
Solution: is as described here but you slide over the step of getting the appropriate printer driver on the remote (XP) computer. The steps that worked for me with a Brother 2040 are:
1) Install printer on Win7 box, install Win7 drivers, get it working locally.
2) Install and configure sharing as described above.
3) Install printer driver for XP on XP machine but point to network printer on Win7 box. (note in my case this was a second Brother driver on the XP box).
4) Use printer and have a victory beer.
Thanks
i have 3 computers. 1 computer used windows 7. another 1 used windows vista and the last 1 used windows xp. Can somebody help me how to creat a network with 3 computer for file and printers sharing. Please i need your help.. Thank you.
Bravo!! After several false starts – Brother MFC 7220 is now shared from Win 7 tp XP on first try.
Thank u very much! This is a very helpful for me…….
Regards
Trinity1100
It worked perfectly. You are amazing, thank you!!!!!!!!!!!
You have no idea how frustrated I have been all day. Thank you soooooo much. I could not have done this with out your help. Again Many Thanks
Here are instructions to share entire drives, including computers running earlier operating systems:
http://social.answers.microsof.....4de284d353
For example, I have three computers, two of which run Windows 7, and one on Vista. Now all three can share all our data in any drive. Of course each computer should designate what it wants shared, but this solves the problem of having drives show up as shared but getting an error of not having permission.
if you do everything, and can share the default shared folder, but nothing else will share – ie. you can see the folder on the other computer, but can’t access it
you have to go to the security tab for the folder properties, click edit, then add, then in the ‘enter object names’ box type ‘everyone’ (without quotes) then just click okay a could times, it should work.
I am still having a problem with win7 seeing XP. I did each step, however, I do not see any XP machines on Win7 and see win7 machine on XP but cannot get access. What do I do from Here?
wah thx… its work for me
Asif
Excellent Tutorial on sharing of files and printers between Win7/Xp .
I was so confused you people helped me out thanks a lot & keep showing on good work.
Regards
Hard Work …
Thanks for these Information . :’)
Very clear directions from the windows 7 machine side, but no information on setting up networking on the XP machine side…
Thank you, thank you, thank you. Not only did you save me money in not having to hire a network person to do this for me, but you gave me mojo for having learned to do it myself. I am a happy camper.
Thank you, thank you, thank you. Not only did you save me money in not having to hire a network person to do this for me, but you gave me mojo for having learned to do it myself. I am a happy camper.
The instructions are quite correct and extremely clear and helpful but they didn’t work on my newly-purchased hp pavilion 1390ev because of the default settings on Norton Internet Security, bundled with the machine, which block all network access to all machines unless you configure them differently. It occurs to me that other problems reported in this thread may be firewall-based rather than anything to do with W7 or XP.
But I still haven’t managed to add an hp 1020 printer running off XP over a Belkin router-based wireless network so that I can print to it from Windows 7, and I suspect that it is the drivers that are the problem. On other XP machines the shared printer just appears automatically, and it does in Windows 7 too through the W7 equivalent of explorer, but I haven’t found a way to add a driver to W7 that will make it work. Oddly, the ubiquitous XPS faxmachine device (or whatever it is) appears and seems to be ready to work.
Good instructions got my Win7, Vista and XP networked. However, I want to share a Quicken file between the Win7 and XP machines but both files have the same name. May I just rename one file, enable file sharing, and then see each file on either machine?
In advance, thanks for your help.
Joe
Thank you for this guide. I just finished networking a Windows 7 machine with an XP machine and they share a printer. I could not have done it without the guide.
!!! RAMBLE ALERT !!!
If you’re offended by rambles, read no further.
It all started when we got a Google redirect virus on the old XP machine (which was still on dial-up). The virus was lurking in the background, but when I took active steps to remove it, I think it declared war. My Norton stopped working! So I attempted to restore the machine using the OEM restore disk. Then the restore disk would not recognize the OEM XP disk (service pack 2). This turned into a cold install of Windows XP. Ever try to download service pack 3 by dial-up? Don’t. Family’s in panic mode, no computer, total withdraw (I swear computers are an electronic narcotic, but that’s another story). Off to the store to buy a new computer. Get a USB modem. All sorts of problems. Dial-up as a system is dying, it’s just unworkable for a new computer, so we order-up DSL service. In the midst of this, I kind of jazz my IT buddy at work “Got a new computer at Staples”. He gets a bit snippy and says I just bought a bunch of over-priced stickers and plastic (he may have a point, but…). Then he says I have an ID10T error. OK, well, enough of THAT avenue of technical support. I guess I’ll go it on my own. So I Google around and stumble on this guide, it’s just what I’m looking for. It’s a good roadmap to get where I want to go. Oh there were a few detours. The support at HP is prompt (at midnight I enter a support request, when I wake up in the morning, the answer is in my e-mail, it’s truly has become a 24-7 world). I learned a few things too. “Teredo” is both a marine worm and a computer communication term. IPv6 has to be enabled to allow teredo tunneling, and that may fix your printer sharing problem. And that on a Windows XP machine you may have to temporarily give administrative rights to a “family” user to change something like an installed printer. But I digress. You expect detours in life, the main thing is: The guide worked! I’m no genius, but I was able to set-up a home network with shared printer due to this guide.
Thanks again. I’m so happy…
P.S I’m going to put a copy of the guide on my admin desktop for future reference.
Thanks, this site worked like a charm. I did not neet to install an x86 driver on Wiindows 7 — I would guess it was becasue the Samsung ML-1740 Windows 7 driver for 64 bit also included files sent from a 32 bit envirenment. So… try it before you feel the need to install the 32 bit drivers — it just might work.
Thank you! I have no idea what i am doing, just what I want to happen. This was so helpful. In fact, this site was Dell tech support’s answer to my question on how to do it!
I had a problem networking between windows 7 and XP, and the solution was synchronising the times. One machine was a week behind the other. Lowering the authentication security method in Group Policy would probably have worked also.
I am thinking that you cannot share the C: drive from the Win 7 machine… from the XP machines I can see the win7 \ComputerName\Users folder… Can someone please confirm or deny this conclusion… Dan
I tried to share hard drives in win 7 by right clicking the drive->share with->advanced sharing->advanced sharing->share this folder “check”. But that did not immediately work, so what i had to do was to open the security tab->edit->add->advanced->find now->everyone->ok->ok->ok->close (or apply if it applies). Now all of my hard drives were shared, but not all sub folders were accessible, so what i found was that the folders i could access were not shared by them selves (i.e if you right click the folder you cannot access ->properties->sharing tab->advanced sharing-> then un-check the “share this folder” ->apply->apply . That did the trick for me
Many thanks to the person(s) who advised setting up a local port in order to get a WIN7 laptop to print to the wireless network printer attached to an XP desktop. I did not have to change the registry as suggested by MS. It seemed counter-intuitive to change the local port (on the WIN7) in order to use a network, but it worked! Prior to that I was getting the message about not finding the driver that others have encountered. I guess this way the print job goes to the XP machine to which the printer is attached and thus can use the usual XP driver. Good luck to everyone. It’s amazing that it should be a problem when both machines are running Windows. Three different Mac laptops have had no problem accessing the printer, but I need WIN for software not available for the MAC. Again, thanks so much. This cooperative sharing of expertise is much appreciated.
@Deb: Thanks for your tip on opening a new local port on my Win7 to print to my XP connected printer. It worked! I could have wasted hours otherwise.
Thanks for the help I know everything except for one thing. I need to install an additional driver and when I always try to the system prompts for me to find the location of an .inf file. I have no idea where this is or what it is and this is the only thing blocking me from connecting to the printer.
sir i have 2 pc window 7 and window xp and i connect the both system through wifi but i con’t acces the window 7 files and folder.error occor that take permission from the server host i have off passoward protect on window 7 advance sharing.on window 7 i access all fils of windows xp.but on xp i can’t acces the wondow 7 fils pls help me
GW – your suggestion was brilliant. I had similar issues setting up a network printer on an XP desktop machine and accessing it with my new Windows 7 laptop. \\Win7Machine\PrinterName worked perfectly!
Thank you!!
Hi In my office has 6 pc with W2000 and 10 pc with XP .All are them are connect together and share folder to see each other.Now we took other 4 pc W7.I done all the preparetion for connection.I sussec that I can see the folder from pc W7 the pc XP but from XP pc I see the pc W7 but is impossible to open the pc to take or see the files.From pc W7 I see the pc W2000 asked me the user name and password when I fill this did not recognize and asked me again other user. What can I do to solve this problem .I ask another think how I share with surver .
Sorry, but it’s a poor explanation. Call me an idiot if you like, (I’m not), but this did NOT cover how to share any arbitrary files from the windows 7 machine on the XP machine or the other way around. Instead it was very confusing since before he got finished he jumped into printer sharing and then back several times. Then in the end he only created a special folder to share. What if I want to share the contents of the entire J: drive so I can copy it over the network? No way obvious way here to do that. In XP, you just click on the drive you want to share and check a couple of things and you’re done. Then when you are finished you can uncheck those for security reasons. This explanation is far more complex and doesn’t accomplish that. Or, perhaps once I relax, get a cup of tea, and spend a 1/2 hour or more I will eventually begin to understand it. But then it’s not a very clear explanation. It does seem to help those who really want to share printers though.
Thx BigJoe! I can now see my XP laptop from my Windows 7 laptop!
As someone else said, very clear info on the windows 7 side but merky on the xp side. If I simply want to access windows XP computer files from windows 7 machine, it is so easy I did it in seconds and the guide was not needed. And that’s what this guide set out to do which is why it was amazing how it jumped into printer sharing. I realize they are related, but that muddies the example.
But in trying to access files on the windows 7 computer from an XP machine, it’s a giant guessing game and this article doesn’t help it. Even when I remove the passwords on the 7 machine, then windows xp still says it has a password to be entered. Amazingly some of the folders open anyway, yet others will not. In fact most will not. You have a nice layout to your article, but I don’t think it covers it in this case.
Now, I decided to try a printer. All I did was say, “add a printer”. It searched the network and found it. I approved and it was printing in under 10 seconds. But still no logical way to share an entire hard drive on a 7 machine with an xp machine. At least not a straight forward easy way….
Zingbing – did you find a solution to the annoying enter network password, user name and password problem?
Hi to all, ive followed the instructions to the letter but when i click print from my laptop(xp) i get the icon come up on the bottom bar on my desktop(w7) but no printing when i click the icon i says spooling then deleting and that’s were it stays any ideas please Thanks
Sharing Windows 7 and XP files on my network.
My network consists of XP, Vista and Windows 7. Vista and 7 shared fine, 7 could get the files from XP, but not XP to 7. I finally opened a web browser and typed in my ip address from XP to Win7 and was finally able to access my files. I tried this solution on all my computers and it worked. Also tried it on a friend’s network which consists of XP and 7 and she was able to get to all her files.The ip address should be entered something like \\192.168.2.101 make sure you have the correct slashes.
People having trouble accessing the files on XP machine in windows 7
Go to Folder options in XP
Then click the View (second) tab on the tab
then go to down bottom in the list and then make sure check box for “Simple file sharing” is on
the try to share the folder again
Hope this helps to some people out there
I can’t seem to get my wireless printer HP Officejet 6000 Wireless to function from laptop to desktop. Both systems are now Windows 7 through upgrades. With 32 bit drivers, I didn’t think this process would be so difficult. But it seems that it’s beyond my expertise. Please Help. Also, Windows 7 will not read thumb drive files from Word Documents. What’s up with this?
Oh WOW!!! I can’t believe that I finally got this to work. I’d spent hours and hours on this. And then once I found your article it only took a couple more minutes and out popped a cute little test page. THANK YOU from every electron in my being.
Wishing you endless computing bliss.
DRIVIN
Call me stupid, but where exactly is this ip address located?
Thanks in advance.
zingbing: I getcha, I have the exact reverse of your problem description. That is I have no problem seeing the Win7 Ultimate host from the XP host …I can ping it, and I can not only see the shares on the Win 7 host but I have access to write, delete, etc. JUst as it should be …
ON the win7 host however I cannot EVEN PING the xp host. I can ping my router, but not the XP box so strange….
Great Job ! Thank You
OK I figured out what was going on at least in my case, which turns out to be McAfee.
For McAfee users:
So .. to summarize .. Logged into the Windows 7 host, I could not ping the XP host. I could ping the router. Strangely, the network (homegroups) could see the XP host, presumably via NETBIOS and I could use the ARP command to see that it was indeed there, but I just couldnt use ICMP to do anything… such as Ping and the shares on the XP host were not accesible….
Swicth to and logged On the XP host, I could ping the Windows 7 host AND I could see, use, write, copy, create, all /any shares that I had created on that host. In other words, no trouble ..
I have McAFee running on both hosts with identical settings. This turned out to be the problem: For whatever reason, the settings behave differently and are inconsistent between the rwo Operating Systems despite the identical settings. The McAfee firewall on the XP host would not allow NETBIOS and ICMP incoming. (ping is an ICMP tool)
The solution was to change McAfee settings on the XP host to allow for full access AND if you want to be able to ping the host, turn (checkbox) that feature on.
Open McAfee —>Configure (lower left Pane) —>Internet&Network —>Advanced button —> Allow Full Access .. and below .. select (or not) Allow ICMP Ping requests.
Hope this contributes
Kyle
Love you – both you and Barkdust45 who posted the best answer to XP computer with printer and Win 7 laptop trying to use printer! Worked like a charm, wish I had found this hours ago.