Windows XP computers can't access shares on Windows 7, 10, or 11 computers

I had network sharing working fine among all my computers with Windows XP, 7, 10 & 11.

My two Windows XP computers had been using IDE drive but my supply of IDE drives had dwindled over the years as they slowly failed. I decided to switch to SATA drives so finally managed to figure out how install Windows XP on them. I am happy with this because both computers now boot faster.

After I set up file sharing on them I could no longer access shared files on any other computer, even the other Windows XP computer. However, I can access the shared folders on both Window XP computers from any of my other computers with Windows 7, 10 or 11.

For starters I have the following settings

• Workgroup: Workgroup
• NetBIOS: Enable NetBIOS over TCIP

Note SMB 1.0 has been enabled of most used Windows 10 & 11 computers. Also, all computers on same Workgroup.

What may be a clue is the error message I get on both Windows XP computers if I try to access the Workgroup.

 

Networking when it goes wrong on these can be a real pain to diagnose, so let's get started.

Can you ping all the systems in question in one direction or the other?

 

I had forgotten all about this thread because I had not gotten a reply until now...

Pinging my computers has never been a problem. I have always been able to ping all my computers. My problem is showing the Workgroup computers. That used to work but doesn't now.

When I was able to see the Workgroup computers I could select one of them to access its shares. Now that that doesn't work I use the same trick I use on my other computers. I use the shortcuts I created to all my network computers.

On my Windows 11 laptop if I select the shortcut for the Windows XP desktop.



I then see the shares for the Windows XP desktop.



On my Windows XP desktop if I select the shortcut for the Windows 11 laptop.



I then see the shares for the Windows 11 laptop.

 

I remember used to be able to access a computer to run Windows XP from Windows 10 but Microsoft blocked that after security and software updates.

I tried to reverse that re-enable the SMBv1 protocol on Windows 10 so that for the computer to access video recordings from a Panasonic recorder. But won't work as that old recorder must have the security of SMBv2.

Nope, nevermind, no longer to have Windows XP and now to have newer recorder without a problem.

Anyway, like this place at XP forums as lovely to remember Windows XP.

 

Great! So at least there isn't a connection issue. As long as the IP address for each system doesn't regularly change, this is a permanent solution that will solve your issue.

First, select one of your drive shortcuts and hit ALT-ENTER to find out what the path of that shortcut is. It will be something like:

Code:

\\SYSTEM-NAME\SHARE-NAME

Next, we need to find out the IP address of 'SYSTEM-NAME'. Once you have that, return to the system we are working on and try the following in a command prompt (for a drive share):

Code:

DIR \\IP-ADDRESS\SHARE-NAME

This should work if there are no other issues going on. If it doesn't work, we'll have to fix the underlying problem.

Once it works, go back to your shortcut and hit ALT-ENTER again to show the shortcut path--replace the 'SYSTEM-NAME' with 'IP-ADDRESS' and now your shortcut should work again. If this works, repeat for all shortcuts. (hint, you can copy shortcuts so you might be able to just fix them on one system and copy to the rest).

Hope this helps!