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Windows XP simple file sharing enable or disable.

This information is specific to Systems with the Microsoft Windows XP Professional operating system which are standalone systems or are part of a Windows workgroup.
Why these systems only? Because changing the simple file sharing status on systems which are part of a domain has no effect.

Why would you want to do this? You may want or need to allow or prevent control of folders to enable or prevent file replacement commands or procedures.

How it’s done. Pretty easy actually.

Go to “My Computer”, select “tools” from the menu list, select “folder options”.
Select “View”, go to “Use Simple File Sharing”
Tick check box to enable or untick to disable.
All done.

Why is this information here? Because someone needed it for a file management process on site after using a “restore to new location” function with an online backup account. We are therefore archiving the simple steps for easy reference.

Who should use this information? Any competent person who wants to enable or disable Simple file sharing for Windows XP Pro.

For many years, Dell support got a battering from I.T. people. This was often more to do with preloaded software and front line support weakness than anything else. I have to admit I was one of the moaners. Dell appeared to attempt to overcome this with quality at an affordable price.

But, Dell support does appear to be blossoming. Recently I wanted a new workstation. I ended buying a Dell power edge T300 (server) with no software. I always avoid preloaded third party trials and in this case I wanted to load Linux. The server was on offer and given my OS plans it made little sense to purchase a preloaded workstation.

The system duly arrived but Linux would not load. The system would boot from the Linux CD but would lock up at the first option prompt. Rather than waste my time calling support about an OS load which they were unlikely to support I tested with an eval windows server CD. Same issue. Contacted Dell and found server support excellent. They shipped a diag CD (most providers would insist you burn it yourself) and this allowed me to diagnose the issue which was RAM. This was then shipped and problem solved.

You may be from the school who believes this should not happen in the first place but we all know these things do happen and a no fuss resolution is what we want and what I got.

I would also like to add that the Dell server support line did not involve any lengthy holding and that they called me back after the CD arrived to escalate the status of the case! I don’t know if this experience is reflected at workstation support level but it was impressive.

We have three Dell workstations in the office and only used the support line once when they were delivered new as we wanted assistance in removing preloaded software. We wanted to remove Mcafee from the new Dells and found the front line support somewhat lacking. The concept as to if we should be assisted in this issue seemed to be a gray area to the support line and the procedure provided was scant and incomplete as compared to a solution we found on the web.

In summary. From our limited experience of Dell support, workstation support is not great and server support is excellent. Given the low price of Dell servers at the moment, it may be worth considering Dell servers as well supported power workstations. There is the obvious question here as to the likelihood of a Dell server being capable (or intentionally incapable) of accepting a non server load of windows. Now that my server is working perfectly with Linux I will try to load windows xp on the Dell server and report back.