File Sharing between Vista and non Vista machines

by Bryon D Beilman

Well, Windows 7 is out and according to many it is going to reduce the pain and suffering those of us who have used Windows Vista. I was an early adopter of Vista as were the rest of my team, because, it was in our best interest to understand the issues that were upon us and to be able to answer questions about whether our customers should adopt it. Like many things, I was hoping to write about this before it may not be relevant because now people want to know about Windows 7, but here it is anyways.

If you have Microsoft Vista and perhaps you want to use your old windows 2000 machine or XP machine as a file server for the family. You get your new laptop , fully loaded with Vista (home, Business, or ultimate). You set up your older machine with windows shares and you try to map a network drive, but it doesn't work. You look at directory permissions, share permission, accounts which are all correct but....it still doesn't work.

We find this as roaming consultants, going from one network to another and accessing information from filers, file shares etc. The fix is easy, but I have run into numerous users , esp home users who are sitting there with a pile of hair in their hand wondering why something simple doesn't work. Those in corporate networks may never see this issue because you are authenticated on a domain, whereas home users have to be part of work groups and don't have a central authority to handle credentials.

Windows Vista by default, is configured to use NTLMv2 while window 2000/XP use NTLM. You need to tell your Vista computer to also accept the use of NTLM. Ironically, if you are using Vista Home, it is harder to do because the snap-in isn't there and you have to hack the registry. No worries, though, I have guided many people through this and you will be fine.

If you are using Vista Business/ultimate
Admin Tools >> Local Security Policy >> Local Policies >> Security Options...find the Policy Key named Network Security : LAN Manager Authentication Level....set the value to Send LM and NTLM responses.

If you are using Vista home:
You have to modify the registry.
1. Run the registry editor and open this key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetControlLsa
1. If it doesn't already exist, create a DWORD value named
LmCompatibilityLevel
3. Set the value to 1
4. Reboot

Both of those solutions will require a reboot.

Your file sharing between other Non-Vista machines should work fine.