Hi dtgVA,

I am looking into this right now. Vista Home Premium does not have gpedit.msc (and don't use my hack yet, as there is a serious bug in it), however all the controls are still in the registry. All gpedit.msc does is neatly bring all these registry entries together into one neat program. All these settings still work, and Microsoft has kindly provided a spreadsheet with all the registry eqivalents. Therefore, deleting any registry entries, even to do with gpedit.msc which does not exist on Home Premium, will bring you no end of trouble! Do not just delete the registry entry!

Be warned that some CD/DVD drives will not share over a network. There is nothing you can do about this except update drivers and try again. No CD/DVD drive will allow you to burn CD/DVDs over a network.

I will come back to you in a few minutes with a proper answer.

Richard

Originally Posted by niemiro

Hi dtgVA,

I am looking into this right now. Vista Home Premium does not have gpedit.msc (and don't use my hack yet, as there is a serious bug in it), however all the controls are still in the registry. All gpedit.msc does is neatly bring all these registry entries together into one neat program. All these settings still work, and Microsoft has kindly provided a spreadsheet with all the registry eqivalents. Therefore, deleting any registry entries, even to do with gpedit.msc which does not exist on Home Premium, will bring you no end of trouble! Do not just delete the registry entry!

Be warned that some CD/DVD drives will not share over a network. There is nothing you can do about this except update drivers and try again. No CD/DVD drive will allow you to burn CD/DVDs over a network.

I will come back to you in a few minutes with a proper answer.

Richard

Richard... Thanks for the heads up and looking into this for me!!

Hi dtgVA,

I do not yet have a clear cut solution (but I am still looking for one), but can I just check you have everything set up correctly. You right click on the CD drive and click Share then Advanced Share. This does not bring you to the Sharing wizard, but to the property page, and you click Advanced Share. In the advanced sharing dialogue box:

• Check Share this folder
• Type a name in Share Name
• Click Permissions
• Under Everyone, check Full Control under Allow
• Click OK, then Apply, then OK

It sounds like you have done this all perfectly. If you have, move on.

• Click Start then Network
• In the top of Network, click Network and Sharing Center
• Make sure the settings I have circled are exactly the same as mine. If you want password protected sharing, turn it off for now, just to see if we can get it to work. (Click on image to see a larger version of the picture)

If you have any problems, just post back.

Richard

Richard...

Everything checks out to be correctly configured as your instructions and image indicate. I was trying to save a little money and not have to buy an external DVD drive for my netbook right now. I thought I was missing some step because in researching this on the net, I noticed some people were able to get this similar scenario to work.

Your work ethic and attention to detail is so refreshing! Keep up the good work!

dtgVA

Hi dtgVA,

I think it is unlikely that it is a Group Policy restriction that is causing your problem. Without Group Policy in Vista Home Premium, the only way that this setting could have become active was you changing the registry (which you haven't) or a virus. I think that a virus doing this is extremely unlikely. This group policy, from what I can make out is for local CD drives, not necesarily networked. This setting does not come under NetworkConnections.admx (a Group Policy administrative template to do with networks) In fact, I have not found this under either spreadsheets, though I definitely think it is a group policy. Under group policy, I would count this more as a networked folder.

Normally for group policies, 1 is enable and 0 is disable (binary), but this is enabling or disabling the restriction, so to disable the restriction, to allow access to CD drives, you set the registry value at 0. Setting the value at 0 was therefore sensible, however setting the Default value at 0 was probably less so (I know you read that, and I am not blaming you in any way). Leave it there for now though, it might help.

Here are some things to try:

• Set up one shared folder on each computer, and see if you can access it from the other computer.

• Disable all firewalls TEMPORERILY. This is a security issue, so enable them again afterwards, even if this fixes the issue. We can set up exceptions later.

• Make sure the network settings are correct on both computers, it should not make a difference, but it is worth checking.

• What Security software are you running? Does it have a buit in firewall, and is the firewall enabled? Is the Windows firewall enabled? Is UAC enabled? What are these settings on both computers?

Good luck,

Richard

Hi,

I have just had one more idea. Click Start and in the Search box type "System". Wait for the results to load, and click on "System"



Now make sure that the Workgroup value is the same on both computers (it does not matter if it is different from mine, just make sure they are both the same)



Make sure your Windows is fully up-to-date, your anti-virus software is fully up-to-date, and update your network card drivers and DVD drive driver. I will explain this more fully later.

Richard

Originally Posted by niemiro

• Set up one shared folder on each computer, and see if you can access it from the other computer.
• Disable all firewalls TEMPORERILY. This is a security issue, so enable them again afterwards, even if this fixes the issue. We can set up exceptions later.
• Make sure the network settings are correct on both computers, it should not make a difference, but it is worth checking.
• What Security software are you running? Does it have a buit in firewall, and is the firewall enabled? Is the Windows firewall enabled? Is UAC enabled? What are these settings on both computers?

Hello again Richard...

• Sharing files, folders and even a printer have not been a problem.
• Disabled Firewall on both computers. Did not fix.
• Network settings are correct on both computers. Laptop Vista Home Premium 64bit. Netbook Win7 Home Premium 32bit
• Norton 360 4.0 with built in Smart Firewall enabled. Windows Firewal disabled. UAC enabled. These are the settings on both computers.

Both computers belong to the same Workgroup: WORKGROUP. All drivers and security software are up to date.

I thought I would have a look at what Services are running. There is a Group Polices Client running. (See picture) What would happen if I were to temporarily disabled or stopped that service from running? Would it cause something catostrophic? Is this service something that's on all Vista Home Premium 64bit computers or does this have something to do with the way Gateway images and installs Windows from the factory?

I never would have thought such a "simple" task of sharing a drive would turn out to be so challenging!

Much Thanx,
dtgVA

Hi dtgVA,

In theory you could disable this service. I am not totally convinced that it will do the trick, but you could still try it. It is not 100% needed for Vista Home Premium, but disabling it may well ruin limited accounts and other things. For this reason, I will NOT recommend disabling it, however I will show you how to do it. Windows does not allow you to stop this service (Is this implying something?), so you will have to break it!!!

I have included a PDF (not written by me) on how to do this. The name by itself should be enough to put you off!

I will come back to you with suggestions that are more sensible as soon as I think of any. I am afraid to say that I am starting to run out of ideas, however I will continue to think, and contact people better than me if necessary.

Richard

Originally Posted by niemiro

I have included a PDF (not written by me) on how to do this. The name by itself should be enough to put you off!

I will come back to you with suggestions that are more sensible as soon as I think of any. I am afraid to say that I am starting to run out of ideas, however I will continue to think, and contact people better than me if necessary.

Hey Richard...

You're right! The title of that PDF is enough for me to say "No way!" Thanks for all of your effort to get this resolved. Please don't spend any more time on this. You've gone above and beyond already. I've learned some valuable information from your research. I can accept the fact that this is probably not going to work, so I'm ready to move on.

I'll be browsing this forum from time to time. I'll look forward to seeing your progress with the Group Policy tutorial for all versions of Vista. Thanks again and I wish you much success in your endeavors!

dtgVA