Vista won't accept XP network account permissions

[Curley_Boy 0]

I've recently bought myself a new Dell PC with Vista Home Premium pre-installed (wish I hadn't bothered now, as Vista has been nothing but a headache for me!). My latest difficulty has been trying to get Vista to allow my old XP Home SP2 machine to connect to its shared folders.

 

I've set up both machines using the Windows Network Setup Wizard, and my Vista network is set as 'Private'. Both machines can see each other in Explorer, but the XP PC is asked to provide a password to access the shares on Vista. Now in Vista's Network and Sharing Center, I have already made sure that 'Network discovery', 'File sharing' and 'Public folder sharing' are set to 'On' (in addition to ensuring that users accessing Vista's Public folders have full permissions, and that 'Password protected sharing' is switched off).

 

However, my XP PC is still being asked for a password to access the Vista PC and its shares! I am positive this is a problem with user account permissions, seeing as I've already tested my hardware and disabled all uncessary protocols and services on both machines.

 

When I first configured my Vista PC, I initally chose to name my default logon account 'admin', and to create a limited account for everyday use. Now my old XP machine also has an account called 'admin' (but, unlike the 'admin' account on Vista PC, it has a blank password). I assumed that the problem was to do with conflicting account names, and so I renamed my Vista 'admin' account to 'root'. But this has not solved the problem.

 

By using Vista's advanced security/sharing dialog, I've been able to run a search for all accounts recognised by the OS. It turns out that although my old 'admin' account appears as 'root' on the Welcome screen, it still named 'admin' in the Users and Groups dialog. Unfortunately, re-naming the 'admin' account on the XP PC is out of the question (as it doesn't belong to me).

 

Does anyone have any ideas on how to solve this irratating problem? At present, I can still copy files and folders from the Vista PC to the XP PC's shared folders (though not visa versa), but it would be nice to have my network working properly!

[CoachTim 0]

Have you set a password? Blank password dosen't cut it in Vista. I know...I had the same problem. Let me know if it doesn't work for you.

 

Tim

[CoachTim 0]

I set a password for both machines and I can connect both ways:

Vista > XP, and XP > Vista