Quick Guide to XP Simple File Sharing

Not all that long ago it was unusual to find a computer in a home environment and small offices had one machine that was shared by the staff. Now, multiple computers are common both in the home and office along with portables which connect in any number of ways from docking stations to wireless setups. It's only natural that this proliferation would give rise to the need for sharing files and printers, not only on a single local machine but on a series of networked computers. This page doesn't cover every nuance of Simple File Sharing (SFS), but if you want to share folders, files, and a printer and connect to the Local Area Network (LAN), this should get you started.

Install the Operating System

Obviously, you need either the Home or Professional version of Windows XP installed since Simple File Sharing is exclusive to XP. With the Home version, SFS is the only choice for file sharing. In XP Pro, you can disable SFS and change to a file sharing and permission system similar to Windows 2000, but only if you are using NTFS rather than FAT32. Since Windows 95 and 98 are well on the way to obscurity and Windows Me should never have existed on any planet, I won't get into the FAT versus NTFS and multi-booting issues other than to say if you are considering using FAT32, go to the Microsoft website and search the Knowledge Base for articles about NTFS until you are convinced to dump FAT32 and upgrade any systems that require its use.

Add Users and Set User Types

The installation phase complete, XP will prompt for user names for the local computer. Add all the user account names and let the Welcome Screen load. If you only add one name, XP will load directly to the desktop, bypassing the Welcome Screen. Once XP has loaded I suspect your first order of business will be to get rid of the hideous default desktop background, but after that's done navigate to the Users section of Control Panel. All the accounts you added previously will be displayed. The user accounts created during setup will be shown as Computer Administrator accounts. If they need to be downgraded to Limited User accounts this is the time to make the change. Finally, make sure each user account is password protected. It's easier to do it now rather than when you are setting files as private and the system prompts you to create a password.

Set Sharing and Security Preferences

Since it's been used before, and I'm not against something that works, I'll use the good old electrical switch analogy for Simple File Sharing. It's basically an on/off switch affair. There aren't many three-way or dimmer switches in SFS. Each user needs to log in to XP. This creates the special set of folders for each users personal profile (C:\ Documents and Settings\YourUserName) where their personal documents are stored. Once this is done, decide if you want to set your personal folders private. To do so, right click the folder, select Sharing and Security and select the Make This Folder Private checkbox. Here are some guidelines:

Individual User Guidelines

• The Make This Folder Private option is available only within your user profile. Simply put, if the folder doesn't reside in C:\Documents and Settings\YourUserName or a subfolder of that location it cannot be made private. Any application generated data that defaults to a location outside your user profile needs to be either pointed to your profile or moved there by hand if it's to be kept private.

• Any protected folder or file moved or copied from within your profile to a location outside your profile assumes the security settings of the folder where it is moved.

• Once you select the location in your profile to apply the Make This Folder Private option, all folders and files beneath this location are private. Individual files and folders cannot be singled out to be shared.

• Finally, the on/off analogy, or all or nothing applies when Make This Folder Private is applied. Once the user sets the permission, the user is the only one who has access to the files. No other user, Administrator or Limited, may access the folders or files.

Shared Documents Folder Guidelines

• The Shared Documents folder is a specialty folder XP creates for all local users to gain access to documents which have been placed in it or one of its subfolders. Shared Documents and its subfolders are located in C:\Documents and Settings\All Users. This group of folders cannot be set with the Make This Folder Private permission to ensure access is available to all users.

• To aid in organizing files in Shared Folders, any number of subfolders can be added to its organizational structure, the most useful setup generally being a separate folder named for each user to make individual shared documents available.

Disk, Removable Storage, and Other Drives

By default, all of the drives on the local machine are available to all local machine users and they cannot be made private. To set a security restriction on a file or folder on the drive it has to be moved to a location within a user profile that has the Make This Folder Private permission set. Drives can be shared on the network by right clicking the drive and using the [Sharing and Security...] option. There will be a warning displayed about understanding the risks of sharing the root of a drive. Click the warning and the sharing Property Sheet opens. Check the box next to Share This Folder On The Network and enter a share name. If the share name is longer than 12 characters, you get a warning the share won't be accessible by computers running Windows 98SE/Me/NT 4.0 or earlier operating systems. My suggestion is dump the Windows 98SE/Me/NT 4.0 or earlier operating systems and use whatever file name you want, but I digress.

If you want the shared drive hidden from My Network Places and Network Neighborhood on the network computers, assign a share name that ends with a [$] sign, keeping in mind the 12 character limit mentioned earlier. HiddenDrive$ would be acceptable, TheHiddenDrive$ would not be visible to the Windows 98SE/Me/NT 4.0 or earlier operating systems.

The last decision is whether or not to allow network users to change files on the shared drive. Check the Allow Network Users To Change My Files box if you wish to allow this option, but bear in mind 'changing files' includes deleting files. When they are deleted, they are deleted for good, not sent to the Recycle Bin. Use caution when considering this option.

Connect To The Network

How you connect to the network depends on the type of connection you have between the individual computers, internet connection, whether you are using a router, and a number of other factors. The Network Setup Wizard will sort through them, providing excellent help documentation and graphical representations of different connection possibilities.

To start the Network Setup Wizard:
Click [Start] [Control Panel] [Network and Internet Connections]
Under [Pick A Task...] click [Set Up Or Change Your Home Or Small Office Network]
The Network Setup Wizard will open.

There have been many complaints that after running the Network Setup Wizard the local machine was still unable to connect to the network and share files and printers. In most cases, this is because the Wizard has either activated the Internet Connection Firewall (ICF), or the name of the network workgroup has been entered incorrectly. All the computers on the network must be a part of the same workgroup to be visible to the other computers. How you connect to the internet and the network will determine whether ICF is needed, but as a general rule, if you connect through a Local Area Network (LAN) which uses a hardware router (i.e. LinkSys products) or a software router (i.e. Internet Connection Sharing) you do not want ICF enabled.

To disable Internet Connection Firewall:
Click [Start] [Control Panel] [Network and Internet Connections] [Network Connections]
Right click the LAN or High-Speed Internet connection and click [Properties]
On the Local Area Connection Properties sheet, select the [Advanced] tab.
Remove the checkmark from the box in the Internet Connection Firewall section and click [OK].

Test the network connection again to see if a connection is now possible. Once the connection has been established, I strongly suggest you visit GRC, a website owned by Steve Gibson, and run the Shields Up utility. It will test your connection and probe the ports on the computer to see if your computer is protected from outside intrusions. Read the rest of the Shields Up pages as well. They contain a wealth of information.

One popular misconception about disabling Internet Connection Firewall is that programs on your machine can call home without your knowledge or Trojan Horse programs can connect to outside machines without you being aware of the outbound traffic. The truth is, ICF protects only against inbound traffic and connections. It has no ability at all to monitor or guard against outbound traffic. To do this you need a third party firewall. A search of the internet will turn up many offerings, many free for non-commercial use. Zone Alarm, Symantec, and many other companies market excellent firewalls. The GRC site mentioned above has excellent information on firewalls also, well worth the time to read. I also suggest reading the following Knowledge Base Articles from Microsoft.

Description of Internet Connection Sharing in Windows XP (Q310563)
How to Enable Internet Connection Sharing on a Home or Small Office Network Connection in Windows XP (Q314066)
Description of File Sharing and Permissions in Windows XP (Q304040)
The Internet Connection Firewall Can Prevent Browsing and File Sharing (Q298804)

Adding the Shared Printer Connection

Adding a printer is simple once the network connection is established. Click [Start] [Printers and Faxes] and [Add A Printer] under the Printer Tasks section on the left side of the screen. If the Printers Tasks section isn't visible, click the Folders button on the top toolbar and it will appear. Clicking [Add A Printer] opens the Welcome to the Add Printer Wizard. The Wizard will ask if you're installing a local printer attached to this computer or a network printer attached to another computer. Ensure that the printer you want to connect to is powered on and make your selection. The next screen will have a browse option, or you can type type the printer location if you know it. Browsing is much easier and a list of all network printers will be presented in the next screen. Select the printer you want and it will be installed or added to your printer list. Run the Wizard again if there is more than one printer to be added and make the selection for which printer will be the default.

Simple File Sharing Really Is Simple

That's it. Simple File Sharing is in place and functional. There are some tweaks you'll undoubtedly make as you use the local and network machines and resources, but the basics don't really change from this initial setup. After using SFS for a period of time you find that you spend more time than you'd like  shuffling files between shared and non-shared folders, or that the security it provides isn't sufficient for your situation, it might be time to look into NTFS Permission Sharing and Active Control Lists based on the Windows 2000 style file permissions. Unlike SFS where it's pretty hard to screw things up, NTFS permission style sharing can be mucked up by a seasoned professional with the greatest of ease, but it does provide a level of security and control that Simple File Sharing was never intended to offer or duplicate.