Windows 7 won't recognize XP PC in network [Solved/Closed]

Just want to say thanks, your advice got me running in 2 minutes after an hour of MS aggravation

Me too... a million thanks!

I have tried this but still can not get the windows 7 machine to recognize the XP machines. Do you have any ideas

You are awesome! Thanks!

Hi XPCMan,
What do you suggest when this doesn't work. I followed you instructions carefully and got all computers in the same workgroup name and can see the Windows 7 machine from the XP machines, but still can't see the XP machines from the Windows 7 machine. This drives me crazy. I have been trying for 4-5 hours to get the Windows 7 machine to see the other machines.

I have / had this same problem and did the same thing as described above and at first it didn't work so I restarted everything still nothing, then I restarted all the computers as well as reset my wrtg54gs router and bam worked like a charm, then on one computer it wouldn't work after it went to sleep and periodicly my 2 Win 7 machines loose site of all but eachother so now reseting my router everyday has done the trick but there has to be something else. upnp is installed on all XP machines as well as peer to peer in the add windows components. I do also have a PC running Win 03 Server Enterprise R2 sharing 5 HDD's movies and music and it doesn't have upnp or peer to peer as I don't have all the comprhensive knowledge to set up a proper subnet for my private network. Please anyone with any suggestions..

once i changed the xp pc name from mshome to the name of my wirless network it all came right

Awesome. Works- finally. I read somewhere else it could be a "Home" network as long as it wasn't Homegroup. Changing to a "Work" network and confirming matching network names finally worked.

No such link as you said!?!

If you're still having trouble, check out Mark's comment about setting the encryption setting lower so that you can see the XP computers from Windows 7.

still not working for me i set up all setting in my win 7 but nothing,
could you tell us the settings for The XP side pls

I was able to bypass the issue of my Windows 7 pro machine not seeing my 3 xp machines. I 'shared' the folders on the xp machines, then added the sharesas network drives on the win 7 machine. The mapping network drive worked when the path of the \\other machines was used. My primary concern was to share files and this worked perfectly.

I had my win 7 wireless laptop seeing and sharing nicely with my 3 xp machines on my home network from November 2009 'til around June 16,2010. (Throughout this period all machines were protected by McAffee suite.) At which point win 7 quit working with the other machines, no see even though had drives mapped and printers shared. Tried everthing including removing McAffee firwall. Nsda! Finally restored win 7 back to June 16, 2010 restore point and Voila! Things worked again -- for a couple days until MS sent 4 critical updates. Tried everthing again. Finally back to the June 16, restore point and Voila! again win 7 played nicely with others on the lan. Disabled McAfee firewall downloaded and installed the 4 MS crit updates. System worked for a day or 2 so made a manual restore point. Day later Win 7 quit playing again. Restored to the manual restore point of about July 5 -- This time didn't work. Will try the June 16 restore point one more time. If it doesn't hold to *$&^%^# with it, I'll share files with a thumb drive 'til MS and/or McAffee get their act together.

DOH! i found the solution to my problem after hours of searching on forums and I felt like an idiot after discovering it. When I first installed Win7 I "tuned" it up to make it faster per some tips i found on another website. In msconfig i disabled several services, two of which were IP Helper and TCP/IP Netbios helper. I went back and reinstated those services and rebooted and VIOLA! I had XP networking. This was also on top of all the other settings I found too (work network, same homegroup, no 128 bit encryption). Hope that helps someone.

I had this issue, the solution is easy (you may have found it already)

On the windows 7 machine, go to the network and sharing center. Click on the "Advanced sharing settings".

Almost towards the bottom, there should be a "File Sharing Connections" section, which is probably defaulted to the 128-bit encryption. Change it to the 40 or 56 bit encryption and your XP machine should show up.

Mark, thank you! This was the missing link!

To repeat this (hopefully so the search engines find it) for sharing between Windows 7 and Windows XP you have to set your Windows 7 computer to the lower encryption setting before it will see the Windows XP computers on your network.

Seriously, and the date on this post isn't even Apr 01, 20**

Make sure your ethernet cable is plugged in from the router to the desktop. I'm not sure if this the fix but I was having the same problem and the ethernet cable was loose on the router side.

The bottom line is Microsoft Networking is a contradiction of terms. It has never worked well and with Windows 7 a whole new level of frustration has been introduced. Why has network discovery always taken so long? Is there a secret society within Microsoft that will fix this for you if you bring large bags of dollars? In my case my xp machines would always map out okay. My first win 7 box with home premium 32 bit worked also. My new laptop with Win 7 home premium 64 bit can't see anyone else over the wireless link. It can see the other win 7 box if a wired connection is used. I sure it is a setting somewhere, but why is this so difficult. I am a computer professional with 40 years of hands on experience and it is difficult for me. What the hell is going on here? Microsoft help is non-existent. Maybe it's time to throw out all the Microsoft boxes and convert to Apple or Linux. We have super fast hardware and super bad software. Would it help; if I invited in one of those people on TV who say that Windows 7 was their idea? I could sure put them to work. I have tried all the suggestions above, and no luck. Why would wireless act different than wired, when Xp works in both cases.

microsoft can give you an answer but they'll charge you like $60 to put you through to advanced networking, and they'll tell you step by step how to connect xp and win7. too bad i haven't done it or else i'd give away the secret in a jiffy

WayneW, you are so right!!! I have about 20+ years computer IT service experience, finally trying to set up my first Windows 7 laptop and running into the exact same problems. After connecting my Windows 7 laptop to the network/internet which took me half a Saturday it still can't see other XP computers in my network. Very frustrating to say the least... If there wouldn't be so many programs I'm using for SEO that are not running on Mac I would have switched a long time ago.....

PS: Sorry that I can't contribute to the solution, it's a great forum.... but it was good to rant :o)

I had the same problem and tried everything and the solution I finally found att Microsoft as follow:

If you're using Windows Firewall, you can skip this section, because Windows Firewall automatically opens the correct ports for file and printer sharing when you turn on network discovery. If you're using another firewall, you must open these ports yourself so that your computer can find other computers and devices that have files or printers that you want to share.

To find other computers running Windows Vista, open these ports:

*UDP 3702

*TCP 5357

*TCP 5358

To find other computers running earlier versions of Windows, and to use file and printer sharing on any version of Windows, open these ports:

*UDP 137

*UDP 138

*TCP 139

To find network devices, open these ports:

*UDP 1900

*TCP 2869

http://windows.microsoft.com/...

Gunnar in Sweden http://www.filmtuben.se/index.php

I simply shut of f-secure firewall and engaged windows firewall.

That's it !!!

On which computer did you add the registry entry?

shld put it on xp or 7???