Hopefully this will be simple and straightforward. On my Vista Home Premium laptop (wireless) I can freely access the other computers on my network--one running Vista Business (desktop) and one running XP Pro (laptop)--except one, my Vista Home Premium desktop which is where all my documents are stored that I regularly use. When I click Network from the start button and then double-click the computer in question, I get a dialog box prompting me for my user name and password. I have discovered that it makes no difference what I enter, even entering a one-letter user name and password, I am then given access. Is there any way to resolve this minor annoyance? I have been putting up with this for over three years. Thank you.

Hi, Please open Control Panel->Network and Sharing Center, click on the down arrow to the right of Password protected sharing to expand it. Then Turn Off Password Protected Sharing. Please note:When you disable password protected sharing, the computer sharing the folder does not require a user account or password. Any computer on your network can access the files and folders you set to share on your computer (provided the shared item was set to share with the Guest account or Everyone, including the Guest account). Users or computers on the network with user accounts on your computer can still be specified or not to have access to a shared item. Regards,Please remember to click Mark as Answer on the post that helps you, and to click Unmark as Answer if a marked post does not actually answer your question. This can be beneficial to other community members reading the thread.

Thanks for trying. Unfortunately Password Protected Sharing is turned off. At one time, the request for a user name and password was sporadic. Now it seems to happen every time I try to access the Public Documents folder on my computer that is sharing the folder. But again only from the laptop running Vista Home Premium. The other computers on my network--one running Vista Business and one XP Pro--can freely access the Public Documents folder in question.

Hi, Please make sure that the Workgroup Name of ALL the computers is the SAME. Still the Network and Sharing Center: Network Discovery: ON Network set to Private File Sharing: ON Public Folder Sharing: ON If the issue persists, please disable your security software on the problematic system or prepare a clean boot to try again. Regards,Please remember to click Mark as Answer on the post that helps you, and to click Unmark as Answer if a marked post does not actually answer your question. This can be beneficial to other community members reading the thread.

Hello again. I had to unmark this as an answer. None of the "standard" remedies works in a case such as mine. I plan to reinstall the operating system in the near future. I will report back on my results after that is accomplished.

Hi, check if you have same usernames and different passwords on both the vista home premium systems that may be causing the problem. so just try to login with other usernames and check whether it is asking for the username and password. I think you have enabled guest access through network that the reason it is allowing you when you type any other username just even a single letter as username it is checking for the username and it doesn't find anything so it is treating it as a guest and gives access. Hope this helps. Regards, Srikanth.

I have, I believe, resolved the issue at long last. Incidentally, reinstalling the operating system did not help resolve the issue. After reinstalling the operating system did not resolve the issue, I set about Binging once again to see if I could find a solution. From another person's experience, I stumbled onto User Accounts and that set me on the proper path. Initially I went into the Manage Your Network Passwords area and that brought me to the Stored User Names and Passwords dialog. That still didn't resolve the issue because I still was prompted for a user name and password. One thing I have neglected to mention is that there are five users on the desktop that has my Public Documents that I access. We are all designated as Administrators, but for some reason that is unknown to me, all Administrators--except me--are still password protected. The users will be prompted that their password is about to expire and sometimes they are even locked out. I have to go into their account and clear the password. So today I went into the User Accounts and saw that two of the users were shown as being password protected. Once I went in and cleared their passwords, then, voila, I could freely access the Public Documents folder on my Vista laptop. Now that raises another question--how do I get rid of the password requirements for the other users on my desktop? We don't need passwords. Any help would be appreciated. The password requirement seems to pop back up without any rhyme or reason. Thank you for the feedback.