how do i share windows & program files dir?


Recommended Posts

in win2k you can share your entire drive. for example, i simple choose to share my C drive and can access it from other machines on my network. i have a firewall and all of these machines are on internal addresses so while there is no such thing as "safe" i feel i will accept this level of security and allow shares in my local home network.

anyway, i've noticed in winXP that i can't access the Windows and the Program Files directory from other pc's on my network. when i go to enable file sharing on those directories it gives me some crap about "all the options on this tab are disabled b/c this folder is used by the operating system."

this is a real pain in the arse b/c when i'm on another machine and want to access my winamp dir under my program files so i can move a skin or something i can't get in that directory. i don't think i should have to use the remote assistance utility to do this. there must be some kind of option, hack or regedit to change this bullocks.

btw, this is winXP pro and i'm logged in as admin.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

awesome. thanx for the reply! now i just need to figure out why the permissions aren't working and if i need to create accounts so the other machines can connect. :p

Link to comment
Share on other sites

ah. ok. i think that's the problem. i see i have a guest user created but i want to make sure that the user has full priv's. the way i did it in win2k was to create account names that i used to log into the network on my win98se machine. sorry to be a pain in the ass but can you help me out on what i'm missing or point me to a good howto or something? TIA.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just give the built-in guest account access to the folders it needs access to... also you should be able to access the folders if the u/p on the 9x box matches a u/p on the XP box. Let me know if that works.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

hrm. still not working. sorry to have to keep asking questions. this seemed so much easier in win2k. here are the details:

winXP, shared the C drive. couldn't access the program files dir and windows dir so i added shares for them as well.

win2k pro, has the same u/p as the winXP machine. i can share files and access C and also see Program Files and Windows are shared on the WinXP machine however when i try to access the additional Program Files or Windows shared directory it says it is not accessible.

win98se machine, user=Default and no pass. on the winXP machine i created a user named Default w/no pass and get the same results as the win2k machine.

it doesn't make sense that i am sharing all of these dir's and they are wide open but i still can't access Program Files and Windows dir. i even rebooted all of the machines to make sure that wasn't the program. even as a test i went into the windows and program files dir and shared a few of the folders. i then went to the win2k and win98 machine and could see those additional folders shared but sitll can't access them. on my win2k machine i simply shared C and could access everything on that drive from my other machines.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

on the 98 box i went to control panel/passwords and there are 3 tabs - change password, remote administration and user profiles. are you suggesting i change to the second option under user profiles saying "users can customize their preference?"

i tried that and rebooted and still no go. this is insane. i can build linux boxes, put whole networks together and a million other things yet MS is trying to protect me from myself. i can't believe the level of steps it takes just to share your program files.

can you tell i'm frustrated? :D

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Your problem is quite simple actually :D you never assigned the right permissions on the XP box, check the security tab on that folder... bet you didn't give the everyone group read access...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

i checked the permissions for C and 'everyone' has full control, change and read checked.

i looked at the security tab for "program files" and "windows" dirs and administrators, power users, system and users all have read access. users don't have write modify or full control permissions though. i tried giving users full control and still not allowed to access those shared dirs.

in advanced shoul di checked "inherit from parent the permission entried that apply to the child objects. include these w/entries explicitly defined here."?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

holy sweet jebus!! that worked!! i remembered that i did this a long time ago on my win2k machines.

right click on C, sharing, security tab, advanced and then checked "replace permission entries on all child objects w/entries shown here that apply to child objects."

that gave me inherited permissions and finally i can see all of my directories from my other machines. i could've also shared individual directories and then chosen inherited rights for them and that worked too when i tested it but i'd rather just share the whole drive. :hurt:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This topic is now closed to further replies.
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.