i have a shared directory on my Windows Server 2003 R2 machine. my problem is that whenever i access this directory from my other system- VM machine Windows XP Media Center 2005 that sits on the Server 2003 machine- i am always prompted to enter a username/password to acess the shared directory. how can i allow access to this shared directory without needing to login every time? i used to have this setup on my Windows XP system and could access those shared directories with no problems. both computers are setup on the same Workgroup as well. any help would be greatly appreciated :)

Generally speaking, in a workgroup environment, when creating a share on a PC or server, you have to create an account (or accounts) on the machine with the share for any/all users that wish to access the share. You then add the account(s) to the share and grant appropriate permissions. On your 2003 machine, create an account for yourself using the same credentials (username/password) you use to logon to the PC you wish to connect to the 2003 box from. Once you've created the account, add it to the share and grant it permissions. Once you've done that, then you won't be asked to login to the share when you connect in the future. Example: Say you logon to your XP machine with the following account: username:JoeSmith password: whatever On the 2003 server, create a user account with that information (ie: username: JoeSmith, password: whatever). Add that account to the share and grant it whatever access permissions you want it to have (ie: read-read/write-modify etc).

Guess you could map the share using the 2003 user and password and use reconnect at logon. I read it wrong and answer it wrong too. So get off my case you goober.

thanks for the response. i tried this but i am still being asked to login to the shared directory.. when i log into the XP machine, i get the bubble message in the system tray saying that the network drive could not be reconnected. when i try to access the drive, i have to sign in. is there anything i might be doing wrong here? thanks.