I've got a home network and with my new Win7 laptop I can't seem to consistently see my Win xp machine on the network using Windows Explorer. I've managed to get a shortcut icon on my desktop that seems to work ok, but when I use Windows Explorer from the laptop nothing shows up except the Win 7 laptop that I am working with. Not only that, but the Win 7 system wants to setup a homegroup that the xp system doesn't seem to use. How can I fix these problems?

You gave insufficient properties about your Laptop and the Clients that you want to connect to... Do you have a Anti-Virus and Firewall Program? Did you activate "Network discovery and file sharing"? You can activate this in Network and Sharing Center. Without these you can disbale all Virus an Firewall Programs no other Client will see you in the Network.