Password-protecting shared folders under Windows XP

[CDRecorder]

In Windows XP, is there a way to password-protect folders that are shared over a network? It was really easy to do this on Win9x, but I can't find any such option on XP. Am I missing something? Thanks in advance!

[UALOneKPlus]

In my XP Pro laptop, I can click on "Share", and then "Permissions", and you can add users with specific read/write access.

The users you add, you can choose a password for them. That way another PC that is trying to access that folder will have to use the user name and password.

The downside of this is that Window 9x-ME can not access this since its networking functionality is so primitive. So you have to use Win2K or XP.

[CDRecorder]

Thanks for your post. I guess that must be a difference between XP Pro and XP Home; on my XP Home computers, I have two checkboxes instead of the options you mentioned. The checkboxes are "Share this folder on the network" and "Allow network users to change my files". Fortunately, my old Win98 computers can see these folders. I guess that I'll just have to keep anything I want to protect with a password on a Win98 computer.

In any case, thanks for your help!

[UALOneKPlus]

Too bad you're using XP home.

Here's a workaround:

Here's the idea: If you don't have a valid user name and password, you can access a shared folder only as a Guest. Password-protect the Guest account and you thwart unwanted access. Here's how—in six easy steps:

Log on as Administrator.
Go to Settings | Control Panel | User Accounts, and click on Guest Account to make sure it is turned on.
Go to Start | Run, type cmd, and hit Enter.
At the prompt, type Net user guest password and hit Enter.
Go back to User Accounts and click on the Guest account.
Note that you can now add a password (see the screen). Do so and reboot.

From now on, any attempt to log on to shared folders from the Guest account will require the Guest password for access—even if the Guest account is turned off!

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,4149,803367,00.asp

And another good resource:

http://www3.baylor.edu/~resnet/fileshareXP.html

[CignaXI]

Here is a link that may help you:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;308418#3

Just enable the security tab and set the permissions for the folders. I also think that there's a folder encryption option but I'm not sure if the Home edition has that feature.

[CDRecorder]

Thanks, CignaXI! I'll give that a try.

[UALOneKPlus]

Here is a link that may help you:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;308418#3

Just enable the security tab and set the permissions for the folders. I also think that there's a folder encryption option but I'm not sure if the Home edition has that feature.

Note - you can't disable Simple File Sharing in XP Home, so this fix would not work:

Troubleshooting
If the Security tab is not available and you cannot configure permissions for users and groups:
The file or folder that you want to apply permissions to is not on an NTFS file system drive. You can set permissions only on drives that are formatted to use the NTFS file system.
Simple file sharing is enabled. By default, simplified sharing is enabled in Windows XP unless you are on a domain. To work around this behavior, disable Simplified Sharing.