Can’t access C drive on a network.

I have set up networking on my two Windows 7 computers and one Windows XP computer. I have selected to share the C drive on all three machines but when I attempt to access the C drive of my Windows 7 PC’s from another network PC be it the XP or the Win 7 PC I get a message saying I don’t have privileges to access this folder. What do I need to change in my Win 7 network setup to access this directory from my other computers? FYI, I can see and access the windows XP C drive from both Win 7 computers. If I share individual folders in the root drive I can share them but that means I have to select every folder I want to share. XP worked great with network sharing, Win 7 not so great. I do like, no love everything else about Windows 7. One great operating system.

Answer
Answer
The C:\ drive is protected in Windows 7, which is actually the best practice for sharing. It helps keep your operating system from being inadvertently damaged. However, if you feel the precaution isn't warranted in your situation, follow the instructions by Michael Bell (MS) below. They were written for Vista but are applicable in Windows 7.

"When you share out the root of a drive in Vista, the UI only allows this through the advanced sharing option.  When the advanced sharing option is used it only sets the share permissions.  The actual permissions on a file share are a combination of Folder and Share permissions.  In Vista the everyone group doesn not have permissions so when you connect without a password the system you can see the folders but not access them or possibly connect to the share but fail to open it.

1.  Open Computer
2.  Right click on the shared drive and select properties from the context menu
3.  Select the Security Tab in the displayed properties sheet.

If you are connecting to the computer with no password then you are connecting with the guest account.  In order to access the files on the drive, the everyone group needs to have access set here."
MS-MVP - Elephant Boy Computers - Don't Panic!
Elephant Boy Computers - Don't Panic!

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Question Info

Last updated November 24, 2020 Views 11,557 Applies to: