Beginning with Leopard, Apple reconfigured the way Windows file sharing is set up. Instead of having separate Mac file sharing and Windows file sharing control panels, Apple placed all file-sharing processes in one system preference, making it easy to set up and configure file sharing.
What You Will Need
A Mac running OS X 10.5 or later. A PC running Windows XP. These instructions are for Windows XP with Service Pack 3 installed, but they should work for any version of Windows XP. Administrative access to both the Windows XP computer and the Mac computer. About a half-hour of your time. Oh, and some files you wish to share.
Apple implemented SMB in OS X 10.5 a little bit differently than in previous versions of the Mac OS. OS X 10.5 has some new capabilities, such as the option to share specific folders and not just a user account’s public folder. OS X 10.5 supports two methods of sharing files using SMB: Guest Sharing and User Account Sharing. Guest Sharing allows you to specify the folders you wish to share. You can also control the rights a guest has for each shared folder; the options are Read Only, Read and Write, and Write Only (Dropbox). You can’t control who can access the folders, though. Any individual on your local network can access shared folders as a guest. With the User Account Sharing method, you log in to your Mac from a Windows computer with your Mac username and password. Once you’re logged in, all of the files and folders you would normally have access to on your Mac will be available. The User Account Sharing method may seem to be the most obvious choice when you want to access your Mac files from a PC, but there’s a slight possibility that your username and password could be left behind and accessible on the PC. So for most users, we recommend using Guest Sharing, because it allows you to specify the folder(s) you want to share and leaves everything else inaccessible. One important note about SMB file sharing. If you have User Account Sharing turned off (the default), anyone who attempts to log in to your Mac from a Windows computer will be rejected, even if they supply a correct username and password. With User Account Sharing turned off, only guests are allowed access to shared folders. If you have changed your Windows workgroup name, as many people often do with a home office network, then you’ll need to change the workgroup name on your Mac to match.
Change the Workgroup Name on Your Mac (Leopard OS X 10.5.x)
After you click the Apply button, your network connection will be dropped. After a few moments, your network connection will be re-established, with the new workgroup name you created.
Enable File Sharing
Sharing Folders
By default, your Mac will share the public folder of all user accounts. You can specify additional folders for sharing as needed.
Enable SMB Sharing
Guest Sharing is controlled by the access rights you granted to the shared folder(s) in the previous step. You can also activate User Account Sharing, which lets you log in to your Mac from a Windows computer using your Mac username and password. Once you’re logged in, all of the files and folders you normally have access to on your Mac will be available from the Windows computer. User Account Sharing has some security issues, the primary one being that SMB stores passwords in a method that is slightly less secure than Apple’s normal file-sharing system. While it’s unlikely that someone would be able to gain access to these stored passwords, it is a possibility. For that reason, we don’t recommend enabling User Account Sharing except on a very trusted and secure local network.
Enable User Account Sharing
Enable the Guest User Account
One annoying thing I’ve noticed when file sharing with Windows machines is that the shared folders sometimes disappear from Windows XP’s Network Places. One way around this intermittent problem is to use Windows XP’s Map to Network Drive option to assign your shared folder(s) to network drives. This makes Windows think the shared folders are hard drives and seems to eliminate the disappearing folders issue.
Map Shared Folders to Network Drives
Your shared folders will now appear on your Windows computer like hard drives that you can always access via My Computer.
