How To Share Files in Windows XP

Follow these steps on any Windows XP computer to share file resources across a local network. Individual files, an entire folder, or an entire Windows drive can be shared with Windows XP network configuration.

Here's How:

1. Ensure Windows XP Simple File Sharing is enabled.
   
2. Open Windows Explorer (or My Computer).
   
3. Navigate to the file, folder or drive folder to be shared, and click once on its icon to select it.
   
4. From either the File menu or the right-click menu, choose the "Sharing and Security..." option. A new Properties window appears. If this option did not appear on the menu, ensure that a valid file or folder was selected in the previous step.
   
5. Click the Network tab in the Properties window. If no Network tab appears in the window, but a Sharing tab appears instead, close this window and ensure the Simple File Sharing option was enabled in the earlier step before proceeding.
   
6. Click the Share This Folder option in the Properties window to enable sharing of this resource. This allows all other computers on the local network to access file(s) but not modify them. To grant others permission to modify these files, click the "Allow Network Users to Change My Files" checkbox to enable this option.
   Alternatively, if the Network tab is not enabled, make required settings in the Sharing tab to configure the equivalent sharing. Choose "Share this folder" to enable sharing.
7. Click Apply or OK to save these settings.

Tips:

1. An alternative way to share files and folders entails moving or copying them to the Shared Documents folder. In Windows, all files contained in the Shared Documents folder are automatically shared on the local network.
   
2. The procedure for sharing files in Windows 2000 and earlier version of Windows can be accessed from the "File/Sharing" menu in Windows Explorer.

What You Need

• Computer running the Windows operating system
• One or more files needing to be shared
• A functioning local network