"Steve Winograd [MVP]" wrote:

> In article <7BAF4A34-A088-4BE7-BD3A-F62DE7011***@microsoft.com>,
> Hop5uk <Hop***@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:
> >Up until recently i had one pc in my house which i had been adding hard disks
> >to in order to handle more and more storage space.Therefore one of the disks
> >has XP home edition on and the rest are just NTFS file system for storage.I
> >recently got another pc which came preinstalled with XP Home on it and i
> >wished to see all my drives from the older pc through filer sharing from the
> >new pc.I have a hardware firewall and so i was not that worried about
> >security and so i simply shared the 3 disks from the older pc so that i could
> >see them on the new pc.I thought this had worked perfectly until i realised
> >that i could not access certain folders ,in particular 'My documents' which
> >was the main point for doing this.I just get 'Access is Denied'.I have tried
> >in vain to find info on the internet but have had no luck.I believe this may
> >be a feature of home edition but there must still be some way of doing this
> >without having to upgrade to professional.Can anybody shed any light on this?
>
> I'm sorry, but that's how Windows XP works, by default, when it's
> installed on an NTFS disk partition.  It blocks access to the Program
> Files and Windows folders and to individual users' "My Documents"
> folders within Documents and Settings.
>
> You can share subfolders within those folders, e.g. you can share
> "C:\Program Files\Outlook Express" or "C:\Documents and
> Settings\Username\Desktop" and access that folder from another
> computer on the network.
>
> If you have Windows XP Professional, you can disable simple file
> sharing, which removes those sharing restrictions:
>
> 1. Open My Computer and click Tools | Folder Options | View.
> 2. Scroll to the end of the advanced settings.
> 3. Un-check "Use simple file sharing (recommended)".
>
> If you have Windows XP Home Edition, that option isn't available The
> safest thing is to share individual subfolders, as mentioned above, or
> to move files into the Shared Documents folder, which is accessible
> over the network.
>
> You can re-install the operating system on a FAT or FAT32 disk
> partition -- those disk formats don't have any sharing restrictions.
> However, that would lose the benefits of NTFS, which is more reliable
> and efficient and can use larger disks.  You'd also need to re-install
> all of your applications.
>
> I've heard of three possible solutions for XP Home Edition on an NTFS
> disk partition, but they're unsupported and undocumented.  I haven't
> tried them, and I don't know whether they're safe.  If you want to try
> them, back up your important data and create a  system restore point
> first:
>
> 1. Start Windows XP in "Safe Mode with Networking" (which temporarily
> disables "Simple File Sharing"), share the desired folder(s), set the
> permissions, and reboot normally.
>
> 2. Use the CACLS command, as described here:
>
> http://groups.google.com/group/microsoft.public.windowsxp.network_web/msg/6faf782867cba46f
>
> 3. Follow the procedure shown here:
>
> http://www.dougknox.com/xp/tips/xp_home_sectab.htm
>
> --
> Best Wishes,
> Steve Winograd, MS-MVP (Windows Networking)
>
> Please post any reply as a follow-up message in the news group
> for everyone to see.  I'm sorry, but I don't answer questions
> addressed directly to me in E-mail or news groups.
>
> Microsoft Most Valuable Professional Program
> http://mvp.support.microsoft.com
>

>Bottom line is, XP is based on NT, which was based on earlier systems
>originally designed around multiple users of the SAME computer, in the days
>when a computer cost a Kings's ransom, filled a room, and took as much power
>as the average street. So its use simply had to be shared.
>
>With the advent of the IBM PC, computers became one-per-desk, and the
>original DOS/Windows OS had no need for user-accounts as such. On networked
>computers, users logged-on to the fileserver, not to their own workstation.
>
>XP has in effect put the clock back on this one. We're now using an OS that
>behaves more like those of the pre-personal-computer era, in having multiple,
>segregated local users. With XP Home, Microsoft have exploited that
>capability to make a system which suits the home environment, with mammy,
>pappy and junior all having their own separate account and workspace on one
>computer. In this capacity it works well.
>
>It's when you start to network computers that this model becomes
>troublesome. You then have a situation where multiple computers also have
>multiple users, so you have 'computers times users' accounts in total.
>Changing your logon or password affects not only your network-access but also
>the behaviour of your own computer AND other users' ability to network with
>you, and these effects can never be fully separated. This makes networking
>such computers very much more complex and problematic than the single-user
>variety. 
>
>The worst aspect of the NT security-model is that Administrators are not
>really Administrators - Although they can take possession of files, they are
>still unable to get into certain folders, other than by way of a brute-force
>reset of permissions.  AFAIK no other operating system works this way, for
>example root in Unix has full access to everything. Thus, although all XP
>Home users are Admins, you still get these kinds of problems where folders
>prove to be inaccessible.
>
>Anyway, I digress. My advice would be to store your shared files in a folder
>outside of the "Documents and Settings" folder structure. This will avoid the
>user-related problems.