How do I share public folders
I am using Win 7 Pro RTM. Clean install. I have4 it set to share public folders in the Network and Sharing Center, however it shares my "user" folder instead. I manually removed sharing the users folder and tried to instead manually share the public folder but it won't let me. When I click on "Share with" I get "Advanced sharing options": and nothing else. If I click on "Advanced sharing options" it automatically opens t6he network and sharing center at the advanced options screen. I certainly don't want my user folder (and all its sub-folders and files) open to read and write access.. . there must be a simple way to share just the pubic folders. Anyone? cheers
September 2nd, 2009 11:48am

If you will notice it does not share all the user folders or subfolders. I beleive what it does share in the user folder is related to media sharing and home group.
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September 2nd, 2009 5:10pm

Yes I noticed that but wouldn't it be simpler and cleaner to do like in XP and Vista and JUST share the public folders and nothing else and not the users folder and then disable sharing in some sub-folders?
September 3rd, 2009 6:03am

I think you have a genuine complaint here. It does not function as it did in Vista. Public folder sharing in Vista was a very good idea. Files you wanted shared were automatically shared when you put them in public, and private files were not shared. Although the setting is still there in the GUI in Win 7, it does not seem to work. In Win 7 if you turn on both file and printer sharing and public sharing, all files are seen. If you turn on public sharing but not file and printer sharing, nothing is seen! I can find no combination of settings which gives you public file sharing only. In Vista, enabling public sharing allowed file sharing but limited it to public files.In the GUI, the file sharing button shows as on automatically when you enable public sharing. In Win 7, this does not happen. The file and printer sharing radio button stays atoff, and in fact you cannot see any shares at all from another computer. Tests done on Win 7 Pro x64 RTM.Bill
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September 3rd, 2009 7:01am

Thanks Bill I'm glad you agree. Until Microsoft fix it I've had to resort of enabing Public File sharing and then manually disabling sharing on all folder in the "users" folder except the "Public"folder. cheers
September 3rd, 2009 9:44am

Check the sharing permissions of each shared c:\users\xxx folder. you'll find that users\public is shared read\write for everyone, while all the others are shared for the specific user accounts only. eg: c:\users\bob will be shared with user "bob" only.
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September 17th, 2009 4:07am

ok, following up on my previous post: although the users folders appear to be shared for the specific users only, I was able to browse all users accounts over the network from another pc, with another user account that does not exist on my pc . We're logged into a domain, and all have administrator privileges.
October 23rd, 2009 8:13am

yep as I said previously the only safe way to do it is to enable Public File sharing and then manually disable sharing on all folders in the "users" folder except the "Public"folder. That fixes it until microsoft puts out a real fix.
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October 23rd, 2009 12:28pm

Right click on the public folder, go to Properties. Under the sharing tab ... click Advanced Sharing. I'm sure you can take it from there. :) I know Windows 7 is quirky like that. Normally, you can share folders by clicking the "Share with" button at the top. But the public folder is weird. :P I've also noticed that Windows 7 automatically shares the Users folder when enabled Public Folder Sharing in the network settings. Not sure why that is. It's an annoyance. I personally turn off public folder sharing, and just set everything up myself.
October 24th, 2009 7:47am

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