After many (many) years in the computer industry, today I have been humbled as, I think, never before. I've read lots of posts regarding the problems people have had networking XP Home and I couldn't understand why they were having so many problems. I've networked through DOS, WinX, NT, 2k, XP Pro and .Net and never had much of a problem (that I didn't create myself). Today, I walked a mile in a Home "Owner" shoes. I got to try adding an XP Home system to an existing network. What an experience :( XP Home edition has got to be one of the most castrated, abortions that has ever been made. Makes ME look like gold. The relatively easy file sharing we've been accustomed to in Win95, 98, ME, 2k and XP Pro is completely gone. "Windows XP Home Edition-based computers always have Simple File Sharing enabled" (Q304040). So no more share read/write passwords (I think). Didn't find out about Fsmgmt.msc until researching later, so I couldn't try it. And what's with the "Remote users always authenticate as the Guest account" when using Simple File Sharing? Speaking of accounts, no Local Users and Groups. By design, the only way to utilize the real Administrator account is in Safe mode. And most OEM machines come with that password blank. BTW, Safe Mode, that's how you have to change NTFS file and folder permissions (Q308418). "If you are running Windows XP Home Edition, in order to have access to the Security tab, you must first boot to Safe Mode and log on with an account that has Administrative rights." (Q308421). Make your own share (FAT32), take off the Read only check and it comes back! Haven't figured out that one yet. Administrative shares - not automatically made (Q282209). Didn't know before hand, so I didn't try to make any and don't know if they will work. IMHO, this is a good thing though, I've always added AutoShareWks or Server =0 to turn them off. No Group Policy editor (gpedit.msc) that I could find. Maybe TweakUi will work and save me time manually editing the registry. "For Windows XP Home Edition, the maximum number of other computers that are permitted to simultaneously connect over the network is five." (Q314882) At least adding the wireless/ethernet router to share the internet connection went without a hitch. Except for fat fingering the laptops touch pad. I'd accidentally deleted File and Print sharing as well as Client for MS Networks some how. Q299357 How to Reset Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) in Windows XP wasn't much help. Couldn't re-install them either for some reason (error was something like XP couldn't find the inf file for them). Thank which ever deity for System Restore! As the guy I was doing this for said : "Microsoft expected him to be able to figure this all out, HA". All I can say is, maybe I will apply for that Unix Admin job I was sent and to hades with the thousands I've spent learning, relearning and certifying on MS products (though they want those certs as well as the moon too). Thanks for your time, michael

well said

So typical of Microsoft. Did Microsoft even consider the user when writing some of their XP code?

Their only consideration for the user how much of the his or her bank account they can get.

This is why it is called Windows Xp "Home" It was not designed for networking. This is one of the reasons we tell folks to purchase the Pro version of the OS when asked. Anywho, life goes on. :) KTTD

KTTD, Yea, I agree with you and always recommend Pro over Home. But the Internet is all about networking. People flock to the OEM systems (we won't start up on that); a lot of OEM's come with XP Home instead of Pro. And they won't offer Pro as an upgrade choice. Some go as far as stating that if you change the OS, they won't support you. I had read of the differences between Home and Pro, never realizing just how mangled the networking was in Home. Until I tried it. michael

KTTD, That's a crock of **** and you know it. Win95,Win98,ME all had far better networking capabilities than Home. Were they more professional than XP home. Why did MS strip it out. According to the Redmond, Windows is "non-modular" - you can't take out pieces without breaking the OS was the defense during the antitrust trial. It's a cash grab plain and simple. Think about all those Win9x clients in all the offices and then realize that MS will get ~$100 more per machine when they are upgraded because to join company domains they will have to spring for the Pro clients. Jimbo