Hi,I have 2machines on my network, one running vista, the other is a virtual machine runningXP sp 3 and I am unable to share files between them.On the vista machine I have got Network discovery and filesharing switched on, I have also changed the workgroup to be mshome (the same as the xp machine) and I have set up a couple of shared folders. If I try and explore my network I can see only the Vista PC.On the XP (virutal) machine I can see the vista PC in My network Places -> Entire Network -> Microsoft Windows Network -> mshome. But if I click on it I just get a message saying\\vistapc is not accessible. You might not have permission to use this network resource. Contact the administrator to find out if you have access.Network path was not found.I have the same user set up on both machines and have assigned it access the shared folders.I am pretty much lost on how to proceed so any help is much appreciated!Thanks,Paul

Hi Paul, Thank you for your post. Firstly, may I know if the Windows Vista computer could be accessed before? If it worked, a quick solution is to restore the system back to the previous status when the issue didnt occur with System Restore. (Note: Performing a system restore may cause the loss of the current system settings; therefore, before doing this, please make sure that the system restore point is not too old and set a restore point for the current status.) Based on my research, I would like to give the folllowing suggestions: 1. Please check the following: a. Ping the Windows Vista from the Windows XP side using both IP Address and Computer Name. b. On the Windows Vista computer, check both Sharing and Security settings, and make sure that you have assigned the Full-Control permissions to Everyone. Alternatively, you can disable the sharing of the target and then share it again with the default settings. c. Ensure you log on the Windows XP with the Administrator account. d. The firewall on both computers are configured to allow the Files and Printer sharing. e. Both of the computers have applied all the updates. If the checks above have all passed, please continue the troubleshooting with the following steps: 2. This issue can also be resulted by the factor that some third party security software or firewall blocked the Windows Vista computer being accessed. Lets perform a Clean Boot to check our issue. Clean boot ================= 1) Click the Start Button type "msconfig" (without quotation marks) in the Search box, and then press Enter. Note: If prompted, please click Continue on the User Account Control (UAC) window. 2) Click the "Services" tab, check the "Hide All Microsoft Services" box and click "Disable All" (if it is not gray). 3) Click the "Startup" tab, click "Disable All" and click "OK". Then, restart the computer. When the "System Configuration Utility" window appears, please check the "Don't show this message or launch the System Configuration Utility when Windows starts" box and click OK. NOTE: we can go back to normal boot by running msconfig again and checking on Normal Startup in the General tab. In the Clean Boot Environment, the third party services and applications are disabled, please check if the issue reoccurs at this time. If the problem does not occur, it indicates that the problem is related to one application or service we have disabled. You may use the MSCONFIG tool again to re-enable the disabled item one by one to find out the culprit. Please focus on the security software first. In the Clean Boot Environment, the third party services and applications are disabled, please try to access the Windows Vista computer again to see if it helps. Thanks. Nicholas Li - MSFT

Maybe you did not do file sharing correctly, check out following articles and see whether can help you:Easy File Sharing with Public Folder in Windows VistaPassword Protected File Sharing in Windows Vista Simple File Sharing in Windows Vista

Is the network type set to private on the windows vista machine? It needs to be set to private. Also what is the host computer for the virtual machine?