In this article, we'll show you how to set up your Windows XP Professional computer to share the disks and folders with other Windows computers on a network using the new feature call Simple File Sharing in Windows XP.

Setup Procedures:

• Double click on My Computer or use Windows Explorer to browse your file.
• Highlight the folder that you want to share out.
• Right click the folder and select Sharing and Security
• Choose the Sharing tab.
  1. If this is the first time to use the feature, you will see the following screen. Then click on the If you understand the security risks but want to share files without running the wizard, click here
  2. Choose Just enable file sharing and click OK.
• From the Network sharing and security group, check the option Share this folder on network in order to enable the the Sharing feature. (If you don't want others to change or modify you files, you should uncheck the option Allow network users to change my files)(We suggest use not more than 12 characters for the share name, if any Windows 9x user would access this share folder)
• Press OK to confirm this operation.
• Now you can see an icon with a hand holding the folder.

Connecting from client:

• First of all, logon the client machine (e.g. PC-B).
• Then we need to locate the host machine (e.g. PC-A). There are couple of ways to do so.

Method 1:

• Double click the My Network Place from the desktop.
• click View workgroup computer on the left hand side.
• Scroll untill you found the host (e.g. PC-A). Then double click on it.

Method 2:

• Click Start -> Search -> For Files or Folders....
• From the Search Result windows, click Computers or people.
• Then click A computer on the network.
• In the Computer Name box, enter the host's name (You can use computer name, IP address or MAC address if you know either one). Then click the Search button.
• Double click on the host PC (e.g. PC-A)
• Now you can found the folder that shared out from host (PC-A) called temp.

Note: There are no passwords or access restrictions and, everything that's shared is accessible by everyone on the network.