I have two computers on a little home network and can access only part of the information between them. Why is this? I cannot acces the “Program Files” folder, “Windows” folder, or any of the personal folder.
Is it possible to do this? How? It would seem odd that this would be utterly disallowed.
What operating systems (windows versions?) are you running on the two computers? How are they connected?DCC? straight through? Router?Hub??? Can they see anything on each other? If they can see some things on each other but not others it’s probably just a matter of setting file sharing rules. Even if they can’t see anything right now, you may just need to share your folders.
Woops! I should have mentioned all of that!
They ar both running WinXP, connected to a router, which is connected to my cable modem. They both “see” each other, and I can access files and folders that I set as Shared, but not the “Program Files” folder. The computer says that it is shared, but this does not matter, when trying to access that “Program Files” folder from another computer (it does not matter wich one) the computer acts as if the folder is empty.
It does say in the windows help file:
“*The Sharing option is not available for the Documents and Settings, Program Files, and WINDOWS system folders. In addition, you cannot share folders in other user’s profiles. *”
But this does not make any sense. There must be a way to access the “Program Files” folder from another computer.
I just had the exact same problem…there is a way you can get around it, but it is a pain. You can individually share any folder inside program files, but to access them you have to use the full network address (\bucko\c\program files\media)
(bucko being the name of the pc you want to access)
You can also just make it a point to not put anything in “program files”. As far as I’m concerned, my entire computer is full of “program files”… If I put all programs and everything used by those programs in one place, what would I put anywhere else?
You’re probably running WinXP Professional, and Microsoft would rather you buy and install WinXP Server if you want to share program files.
There are tricks and other ways to get around this, but in the age of 30GB+ hard drives, I don’t see any technical barrier to just installing a local copy of all application software on each machine.
I posted this exact thread with the same operating system and same hardware a few months ago. The general consensus was that no, you can’t share you program files. Bryan Ekers’ theory as to why you can’t share that folder seems pretty sound, I knew with Micro$oft it had to be something other than “security.”
I posted this exact thread with the same operating system and same hardware a few months ago. The general consensus was that no, you can’t share you program files. Bryan Ekers’ theory as to why you can’t share that folder seems pretty sound, I knew with Micro$oft it had to be something other than “security.”