Windows XP USB Auto Sharing?

[maharrington]

Hello there, this is my first post.

I have a 2 computer home network (one is a Win XP Home desktop computer with one admin account, the other is a Win Vista Prem. laptop with one admin account).

I want to know if it is possible to automatically share all of the drives on the laptop so that they can be accessed by the computer.
For example, if someone plugs in a USB storage device, then this can automatically be accessed by the computer - even though it may not have been assigned a share name previously.

Can a share name be automatically assigned to a device through a batch file that runs at startup (even though the usb may be inserted 20 minutes into a session?) - if not, can it be done by batch file anyway?

I think i have explained myself enough - however, if you need more detail, just let me know.

Thanks anyways,

Matthew

 

[hulettk]

Probably the easiest way is to map the drive, instead of dealing with a share.

The drive will remain mapped, even when the USB drive is disconnected from the laptop; and it should appear available when it is re-connected. This should save you from constantly adding shares.

There are security concerns when sharing drives across a network that is also connected to the Internet. You may also need to make several configuration changes to your network/PC so that the drive is consistently available.

I'm not going to give a full lesson on networking with Windows here, however you should be able to find information on how to map a drive from other online sources.

-KH