File sharing problems - "your folder could not be shared"

I am facing a problem with file sharing in Windows Vista Home Premium. My wife is having a laptop which is having the same OS in it. I want to share some files so that she can also access it on her laptop. But somehow in network discovery my laptop is not at all visible. We are on the same workgroup. There is no router no lan nothing. The laptop is connected with ethernet port. While sharing I got the error saying that your folder cannot be shared. The issue lies with the file permission. I had modified the same but still the problem is same. I thought the issue was due to network path. I have Norton installed on my system. Does that is the cause of this problem.

When you are sharing a folder right click on that and click on Sharing tab. There is a permission column. You can choose everyone and allow full read and write access. If you are not on wifi then this is a safe way of file sharing as anyone connected to your laptop can access your files. Second thing you can do is create a home network and at the end Vista offers you a password. Anyone can connect to the system by adding that password. I have around 5 computers on the lan and all are under one workgroup. I file share on a home network.

It looks that you are doing something wrong due to which you are getting that error. You must check once again in your system. In Vista file sharing is a bit complicated compared to Windows XP. You must be the admin of system to make changes to file and folders or else this kind of errors will keep on appearing. You can go in Network and Sharing center and change the type of network you have. If you put that on public network then there is no need to add a password. Your public folders will be shared.

There can be number of reason behind that. To get a bit detail description on the error go in Event Viewer > Log. There you can find more description and the associated file which is causing the error. Vista is a bit buggy in many things. You can start with updating your lan drivers and checking that your system is able to view the other laptop. If it is still not accessible then your cable will be faulty. Try to change that and add a better one. If your system has a wifi then try to create a wifi network in file sharing.

Some time ago I had faced the same issue. I had upgraded a system to Vista and then it was not able connect on network. I also tried to shared some folders but still it was not working. It was a bit weird. I updated the drivers, performed Windows Update but still the issue was constant. The problem lies with the file sharing service. It is located inside Services in Control Panel. You must enable that or start it manually and then try to share the folder once again. You can find File and Printer Sharing. Sometime it is blocked by antivirus or firewall due to which this kind of error appear. Disable your antivirus and then check once again.

I had contacted microsoft a ton time on this issue. I had also paid for the troubleshooting but the problem just reappear after a few time. It is really annoying that you get this kind of silly issue. And then we have to learn hard about the software by searching on web to resolve the problem. Till yet I had not found any solution. I had formatted my computer and then installed everything from scratch. The File and Printer Sharing is enabled and there is no bug with that.

There are some registry patches which can fix the issue. I had found them on Microsoft website and they really works. I was facing problem with Lenovo laptop. It has Vista Home Premium in it. the Network sharing was not working properly and due to which I was not happy at all. Later on on the official website I found a information a kind of registry pack that really worked. You must try to search for some lan type updates on the manufacturers website and install it.

I was getting access denied error on shared folder. I am on windows server where around 10 pc are hooked. They all share content among each other. The file sharing is blocked. All cannot access the same. Only in one vista computer which was a 64bit system face the issue of file sharing. I had to rework on the file permission back again and then it started working. In Windows XP there is a option called as Network ID. This authenticate the system on network. But in Vista this thing is missing.

You must change the permission settings. And for that if you can go through that Vista manual then it is much more better. I found a link below. This link has a complete detail on sharing files on Vista along with permission management. You can view this and on that basis modify the settings. If possible try to update your lan drivers and then check back. I am sure this should work.

File and Printer Sharing in Windows Vista

Go to Network and Sharing Center. In that click on Manage Network Connection. Right click on the network adapter and choose Share file. Later on go on Properties and then choose Client for Microsoft Network. Add this. Restart your system and then try to share your folder once again. If still you are facing the same issue then disable your antivirus and firewall. I think this must be working fine. Firewall is the common cause of this issue. you are unable to access any files if the antivirus puts additional restrictions.