Setting Up File Sharing in Windows XP Professional Is Easy

For a workgroup network, XP Pro provides Simple File Sharing (SFS). With SFS, administrators can easily set up file and folder sharing. By easy, I mean you don't need to set up the same user accounts among workgroup computers as you need to do with Windows 2000 Professional. With SFS enabled in XP Pro, remote users always authenticate as a Guest account.

To enable SFS in XP Pro, simply double-click the My Computer icon on the user's desktop. (Note that it's enabled by default in a workgroup setting.) Under the Tools menu, choose Folder Options. Select the View tab. In the Advanced settings list, check the Use simple file sharing (Recommended) check box, then click OK. Note that you won't find SFS in XP Home Edition because it's a default setting that can't be disabled, except through a registry setting.

—Kyung Son
kson@ieee.org

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