Sorry guys, I had been looking for a solution to this for a couple of days,
and have now just found a solution.
I have Windows Vista Ultimate 32bit , Here is what worked for me:
*Open regedit.exe under Run in the Start Menu.
*Navigate to
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\lanmanserver\parameters
*Look for the REG_DWORD types named 'AutoShareServer' and 'AutoShareWks' and
set there values to 1. If they are not there, create them.
*Restart the computer.
The only 'bad' thing about this is that it exposes your hidden shares to
people on your network if they know the name and a use the $ suffix to
display them. But this is a 'built in' feature O_o?
You can read more bout it here:
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,2124522,00.asp
The cause of this is a botched install or some third party registry
cleaners/fixers, as well as some MS updates...
Hope this helps someone!