Password Protected Sharing in WIndows 7

This is an article that I am writing up because I have not been able to solve this problem over the past 3 years that I have had Windows 7…until now. Does anyone remember how file sharing in XP went? All you had to do was share a folder and it was available on the network. At the time, I wasn’t doing media sharing. Windows 7 made that a bit harder. Someone had the idea of putting user account level security at the forefront of file sharing as a better means of file protection. Mind you, I have the utmost respect for Microsoft at making better file security. It’s just that it made it more difficult to try and figure out a new means by which we could re-share our existing shares.

As I said, Windows XP had a much easier means by which you could share folders over a network. Just right click the folder, click share (maybe a couple of other options), and the folder was shared. Mind you, at the time, I wasn’t doing media sharing over the network. So, I didn’t need that extensive of a network sharing system. When Windows 7 came along, you had the options of micro-managing your network sharing capabilities. The thing is they don’t tell you that if you select something, you suddenly lose half the capabilities of your PC. Up until now, I’ve had to create users for every network share I intended to share with a specific person over the network. I have finally figured out what it was that I did that crippled my network sharing:

At the bottom right of your Windows 7 layout, there is an icon in the taskbar for network and internet access (this may be different in Windows 8). Right click and “Open Network and Sharing Center.” On the left side of the new window, click “Change advanced sharing settings.” There will be settings for “Home or Work” and “Public.” Go through both and, where it says “Password Protected Sharing,” click “Turn off password protected sharing.” This makes it so that you can click on a computer in your network and be able to see all the folders that are being shared. However, you still have the option to share folders on a user-account level so that you can have a degree of network security.

Mind you, this is a simple answer to a simple problem. I'm sure some people out there have had problems requiring editing of the system registry. Also, as far as Windows 7 Homegroup is concerned, it doesn't work without IPv6 and, according to my dad, IPv6 has problems "playing nice" on a network (he had to disable it on the network at his job). But, for the rest of you, you can stop banging you head against the wall now.