Simple enough question, not so sure how simple an answer.....

I want to be able to access my pc (vista) from my laptop (win7) or vice versa. I'm no expert but I couldn't find a way to do it. Is this possible? I'd hope so as its a bit of a design flaw if not! Cheers for any help

Access in which way?

Share files between two/stream media, or connect remotely using remote desktop or something?

You are making the assumption that I know what I am talking about lol

I'd like to be able to access files from my laptop which are on my pc - photos, watch videos, listen to music etc. I used to be able to do it with my two old pcs, access the hard drive of one from the other, but col did that for me lol

Edited 14 April, 201313 yr by Loz

Ah, should be pretty simple then. I'll assume all the media you want to share is in only one folder for now though.

Right click on the folder and choose the 'Sharing' tab. Then click 'Advanced Sharing'. From there, click the 'Share' tickbox and then go to permissions. This would be situation dependent but at home where I know it's just me accessing the share, I gave everyone full control as it's the easiest option. Otherwise you might want to limit who can access what by adding your username and removing rights for everyone.

Now, it should be shared, you just need to work out how to access it. This is done by referencing the PC by either the IP address, or PC name. The PC name is easier as it's static, whereas the IP can change (depending on the network configuration).

First of all, find out the name of the PC the files are saved on. From the start menu, right click Computer and choose properties.

Now, on the PC that will do the accessing, open up and Explorer window (my Computer, Documents etc) and type in '\\*PC NAME*' and see what happens. If it works and the PC can be accessed, then good! If you're asked for a username, provide the username and password of the target PC. You'll need to type it in the format 'PCNAME\USERNAME'.

Now, you just need to make an easy way to access this share. You could either create a shortcut, or add it as a drive. To add as a drive:

I don't know the option in Windows Vista/7, but you'll be looking for 'Map Network Drive'. Once there, put in the path used to access the share, so in my case it's just '\\joes8dell'. If you needed to put in a username in order to access the share, tick the 'Use Other Credentials' box, and then put them in as done earlier.

That should now be it.

If the PC isn't reachable by name, then you can use the IP address instead, but ideally you'd set it to be static so it's always the same. If you need to do this, then I/someone else should be able to help.

Hopefully that works, I don't think I've missed any steps out, but Vista might be a bit different, although I doubt it will be.

Rather useful to add a CD drive as a network drive sometimes too. My brothers kindle fire with the ES file explorer app can see some disks in it (not all though. android wasnt really meant to be able to browse disks anyway so hey :p) and all 3 netbooks we have in the house are capable of full read-only access off of it, I used that to install printer drivers on all 3 of them and play GTA san andreas on one (albeit with awful performance).

Thanks for the directions, I will give it a try and see what happens! It's weird because the boyf has done his really easy with 2 win7 machines, but it seems harder to do with 7 and vista!

6677 - I don't really understand that about cd drives.... Lol

Just means that I can use my desktop computers cd drive on a netbook which doesn't have a cd drive by using the same method above.

Had to do it to install the drivers for my printer, they came on CD. Netbooks don't have CD drives. Network to the rescue (I actually had 2 fallback plans already though for if it didn't work)

I find a USB stick easier for that Or RDC into the netbook and share the drive that way.

Didn't know you could use it with ES though - that's pretty cool!

I have a proper laptop so that's not really an issue! Just would like to get to files while sat watching telly

imple enough - go get a cross cat 5 cable. That's one with TXD & TXR CROSSED . Plug into cat 5 sockets on PC & rOBERTA IS YER aunty .