Vista File Sharing dialog box not being activated

[...winston]

Current status: Networking 4 computers(Vista and XP) - all networking,
folder and printer sharing etc is completely functional. No problems Vista
to XP and vice versa.

But.....Somewhere along the line I have lost the ability to activate the
Vista 'File Sharing' dialog box as shown at
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/network/evaluate/vista_fp.mspx. This
dialog box as shown in the pic offers the option 'Choose People to Share
With' etc.

Instead of the dialog box I am taken to the folder's properties Sharing tab.
On that tab the 'Share' button is also greyed-out. The only available option
selectable is Advanced Sharing. The advance sharing option is functional
and can be used to share folders located or user created on any shareable
drive/partition/logical drive with all other users, everyone, guest etc.

I've even unshared every single folder and started fresh to see if the File
Sharing dialog 'Choose People to share' prompt returned. Lol..Not a chance.

Changing any option in the Network and Sharing Center e.g. network
type(public,private),or Sharing and Discovery options(Network Discovery,
File Sharing, Public Folder sharing, printer sharing, password, media) also
does not have any impact.

As noted...everything else is functional(mapping, sharing etc)

It seems apparent I've turned something off inadvertently by choice or
accident or even something has become corrupted.

It would be nice to have it back instead of using the long-handed Advanced
Sharing option for everything.
System Restore did not offer improvement.

Any comments, suggestions, scolding<g> etc is appreciated.

...winston

 

[Joe Guidera]

Sounds like you have simple file sharing disabled. Open Tools/Folder
options select the view tab and scroll down to the bottom. Is "use file
sharing wizard" selected?

J

 

[...winston]

Joe,
That option was selected(i.e.checked on)...a toggle off\apply and then
on\apply fixed it.
Back to normal.. Thanks!!

If I may ask one more question.
Network and Sharing Center has two options
Show Me all the files and folders I am sharing
Show me all the shared network folder on this computer

The latter I see all folders shared on all pc' s on the network and makes
perfect sense.
The former opens Explorer to the Searches\Shared By Folder and has one
single entry,
{00000002-00000000-0000000A-00001102-00000004-10021102}.cdf
and points to folder c:\Users\[mylogonname]\AppData\Local\VirtualStore\

I first thought that if one included the folder in the Search Index it would
appear but that didn't have any impact.

Any idea what causes a files and foldes to appear in the first option or
even if they should appear.

...winston

 

[Joe Guidera]

The "shared by me" search is a custom saved search that I believe (don't
hold me to this) actually uses the registry and a virtual folder/file store
to enumerate your shared items (read vista voodoo). The second option is a
good old fashioned - show me what the browse master knows and relies on SMB,
Netbios, WINS, etc (a whole host of rules that determines what's broadcast
and who keeps a list of what) on your network.

The former should be a saved search:

C:\Users\<username>\Searches\Shared By Me.search-ms

Joe

Joe,
That option was selected(i.e.checked on)...a toggle off\apply and then
on\apply fixed it.
Back to normal.. Thanks!!

If I may ask one more question.
Network and Sharing Center has two options
Show Me all the files and folders I am sharing
Show me all the shared network folder on this computer

The latter I see all folders shared on all pc' s on the network and makes
perfect sense.
The former opens Explorer to the Searches\Shared By Folder and has one
single entry,
{00000002-00000000-0000000A-00001102-00000004-10021102}.cdf
and points to folder c:\Users\[mylogonname]\AppData\Local\VirtualStore\

I first thought that if one included the folder in the Search Index it
would appear but that didn't have any impact.

Any idea what causes a files and foldes to appear in the first option or
even if they should appear.

...winston

Sounds like you have simple file sharing disabled. Open Tools/Folder
options select the view tab and scroll down to the bottom. Is "use file
sharing wizard" selected?

J

 

[...winston]

Joe...I thought I finished this and sent it earlier but found it in my
drafts folder as read thus didn't notice it.

Input on Search XML code compliments of Keith Miller, MPV in the
vista.general group.
In summary:
The 'Shared by Me Search' function's XML code uses two queries on 'known
folders' . The scope points to these as the known folders/directories:
{5E6C858F-0E22-4760-9AFE-EA3317B67173}
- User Profile
{DFDF76A2-C82A-4D63-906A-5644AC457385}
- Public

I.e. for it to appear in the Shared By Me Search(accessible via Network
Connection/Show me all the files and folders I am sharing), the folders a
new or existing need
to be in those locations and shared.

A few caveats are required.
- as long as a folder is manually shared by the owner,
contains at least one file, and permission is set to another user or
everyone with contributor, co-owner, owner rights or guest with read or
greater rights.

You can validate this by creating a folder in those locations or use an e.g.
C:\Users\[your
profile]\Pictures; share the folder and select Everyone and change
permission from Read to another option. Wait for the Search index to
repopulate or shutdown/restart and let the index rebuild.

...w

 

[Guest]

Joe
I have the same situation, but this fix did not work. "use file sharing" is
selected, and unchecking and rechecking did not correct the problem. Any
other solution to restore use of file sharing wizard?
Thanks