Sharing files and printers between Windows 7 and XP

Having two computer systems in home is quite common and creating a home network becomes a requirement for easy sharing of files and computer resources between the two systems. If you have a home network with one Windows 7 and other one Windows XP, then this article would be helpful to you for convenient sharing of files and hardware devices like a printer.
Actually sharing folders between two Windows 7 machines with the new Home Group feature is much easy process, but the Home Group feature is not compatible with Vista or XP. Before starting up, make sure that both machines are members of the same Workgroup. Follow the given below steps:
On the Windows 7 machine go into Control Panel -> All Control Panel Items -> Network and Sharing Center -> Change advanced sharing settings.
Here check the turn-on box for every option.
If you want any user to 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.
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.
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.
Over on your XP machine open up My Network Places to find the Windows 7 shared folder.
Double click on the Share folder to find a list of shared folders in the Public folder on Windows 7.
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.
This way you can start sharing your files and other devices with your Windows 7 and XP machine.
Caught in the midst of computer crash and are unable to access computer files? Don’t worry use data recovery utilities to get back all lost files and folders. Data recovery utilities are impeccable in recovering corrupt data.

Article Source: Sharing files and printers between Windows 7 and XP

Published on www.ArticleMark.org