My colleague has two WinXP machines and one PC running Vista Home. These are
all connected via a Netgear router and can all 'see' each other. A shared
printer is connected to the Vista PC and each of the WinXP machines can see
it. In order to print, they must supply a username and password (valid on
the Vista) PC and this allows them to connect and print. However, they have
to do this each time.

I have suggested that the usernames on the WinXP machines be set up as users
on the Vista PC so that they can authenticate themselves. Am I barking up
the wrong tree or is this the way forward for his query?

Thanks for any suggestions

David Standen wrote:
My colleague has two WinXP machines and one PC running Vista Home. These are
all connected via a Netgear router and can all 'see' each other. A shared
printer is connected to the Vista PC and each of the WinXP machines can see
it. In order to print, they must supply a username and password (valid on
the Vista) PC and this allows them to connect and print. However, they have
to do this each time.

I have suggested that the usernames on the WinXP machines be set up as users
on the Vista PC so that they can authenticate themselves. Am I barking up
the wrong tree or is this the way forward for his query?

No, you are quite right in your assessment. Create matching user
accounts and passwords on all three machines and you won't have the
request for authentication. Things will work better, too. If your
colleague wants each machine to automatically log into a user account
(with the effect of going directly to the Desktop), that can be set up
the same way in Vista as in XP. You don't need to be logged into the
same accounts on all machines; the matching accounts just need to exist.

Configure Windows to Automatically Login (MVP Ramesh) -
http://windowsxp.mvps.org/Autologon.htm


Malke
--
Elephant Boy Computers
www.elephantboycomputers.com
"Don't Panic!"
MS-MVP Windows - Shell/User

If there are accounts on the Vista machine having the same account name and
password as the XP account, then the XP account will have the same access
rights as the account on the Vista machine has.

(That should get rid of requirement for the XP account to give account info
for a Vista account.)

Michael


"David Standen" wrote in message
...
My colleague has two WinXP machines and one PC running Vista Home. These
are
all connected via a Netgear router and can all 'see' each other. A shared
printer is connected to the Vista PC and each of the WinXP machines can
see
it. In order to print, they must supply a username and password (valid on
the Vista) PC and this allows them to connect and print. However, they
have
to do this each time.

I have suggested that the usernames on the WinXP machines be set up as
users
on the Vista PC so that they can authenticate themselves. Am I barking up
the wrong tree or is this the way forward for his query?

Thanks for any suggestions

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/l.../bb727037.aspx

Have a read of the above link re Vista File and Printer Sharing.

1st thing to do is make sure that the Workgroup Name of ALL the computers is
the SAME.

In Vista Network and Sharing:

Network Discovery: ON (So it can see the other computers)

Network set to Private (Public is for hotspots, airports, etc)

File Sharing: ON

Public Folder Sharing: ON (Vista’s Public Folder is the same as XP’s Shared
Docs)

Password Protected: OFF (unless you want to set up identical usernames and
passwords on ALL computers in your Network) If you have it ON, you will be
asked for a username and password when you try to access a Vista computer
from an XP computer.

Also, run the XP’s Home Network File and Printer sharing Wizard.


"David Standen" wrote:

My colleague has two WinXP machines and one PC running Vista Home. These are
all connected via a Netgear router and can all 'see' each other. A shared
printer is connected to the Vista PC and each of the WinXP machines can see
it. In order to print, they must supply a username and password (valid on
the Vista) PC and this allows them to connect and print. However, they have
to do this each time.

I have suggested that the usernames on the WinXP machines be set up as users
on the Vista PC so that they can authenticate themselves. Am I barking up
the wrong tree or is this the way forward for his query?

Thanks for any suggestions