Vista Tutorial - File Sharing - Turn On or Off

**Brink** · **STEP ONE:**

How to Turn File Sharing On or Off in Vista

Information

This will show you how to turn file sharing on or off for all people on your network to be able to access the files and printers that you have set to Share on your computer.

WARNING

Check the Network Location Type settings.
NOTE: For how, see: How to Change the Network Location Type in Vista

If your network location type is set to Private (Home or Work), then file sharing is turned on by default.
If your network location type is set to Public, then file sharing is turned off by default.

RELATED LINKS:

STEP ONE:
Network Connection Properties

NOTE

This is your connection properties for your network adapter device.

1. Open the Control Panel (Classic View).

2. Click on the Networking and Sharing Center icon.

3. Click on Manage network connections in the upper left corner.

4. Right click on the Network Connection you want to share the Public folder with, and click on Properties.

5. Click on Continue in the UAC prompt.

6. Check File and Printer Sharing for Microsoft Networks and click on OK. (See screenshot below)
NOTE: This is checked by default. This must be checked to be able to turn on file sharing in STEP TWO below.

STEP TWO:
Turn File Sharing On or Off

1. Open the Control Panel (Classic view).
A) Click on the Network and Sharing Center icon.

B) Go to step 3.

OR

2. Right click on the taskbar Network system tray icon.
A) Click on Network and Sharing Center.

3. Click on the down arrow to the right of File sharing to expand it. (See screenshot below)

4. To Turn On File Sharing -
NOTE: With file sharing on, all people on your network will have access to the files and printers that you have set to Share on your computer.
A) Select (dot) Turn on file sharing. (See screenshot below step 7)

B) Go to step 6.

5. To Turn Off File Sharing -
NOTE: With file sharing off, all people on your network will not be able to access the files and printers that you have set to Share on your computer.
A) Select (dot) Turn off file sharing. (See screenshot below step 7)

6. Click on the Apply button.

7. If prompted, click on Continue in the UAC prompt.

STEP THREE:
Enable Simple File Sharing

1. For how, see: How to Enable Simple File Sharing in Vista

That's it,
Shawn

giksy · 11-23-2008

i can not click on :turn on file sharing or :turn off file sharing - because them are frozen

http://img367.imageshack.us/img367/3...sharinget4.jpg

**Brink** · 11-23-2008

Hello Giksy,

Sorry it took a bit to get back to you, but I have been doing some research on this. Are you using another firewall other than Windows Firewall? If so, then this may be the issue. If you do, keep Password protected sharing turned on, and see below.

Here are some additional considerations:

Firewall software blocks network sharing by default for security. To use file sharing or printer sharing in Windows, you must ensure that your firewall software is configured to allow the appropriate networking protocols to communicate. Consult the documentation that came with your firewall software.
Turning on printer sharing automatically turns on file sharing, because printer sharing uses the same protocols as file sharing, and requires the same Windows Firewall rules to be enabled. However, the reverse is not true: turning on file sharing will not automatically turn on printer sharing.

Since you have Vista Ultimate, you might also try disabling file sharing through Group Policy to see if that helps.

Hope this helps some for now.

giksy · 11-23-2008

it din`t work.
anyway thank you again.
and yes i`m using another firewall than vista`s. and that is comodo firewall

**Brink** · 11-23-2008

No problem. You should be fine though as long as you have the Password protected sharing option turned on.

Sudhi164 · 03-09-2009

hi,

is there any command line parametr to disable file sharing as i need to do it for many number of computers....

regards,
sudhir

**H2SO4** · 03-09-2009

NET STOP SERVER

That stops the (SMB) server service which will prevent the machine from sharing files (and printers) until the service is restarted.

However, if you reboot, the service will restart again because by default it's set to start automatically. To disable auto-startup, you could use this:

sc config LanmanServer start= auto

You'll need to do it elevated though.

Sudhi164 · 03-09-2009

hi,

it is not working

and also i need to uncheck the file and print sharing for network...

regards,
Sudhir

**H2SO4** · 03-09-2009

What exactly is not working for you? What errors do you see, if any?

If you stop (and disable) the Server service, I can guarantee nobody will be able to access shares on that box. In fact, that's the best way to stop sharing.

I made an obvious mistake with the SC command though. To disable the service, use this syntax:

sc config LanmanServer start= disabled

(Note "disabled", not "auto" as I previously wrote.)

Sudhi164 · 03-10-2009

hi,
the above command which you have mentioned is not working below is the screen shot

i want the uncheck the check box file and printer sharing for network in the properties of network.