Cannot share folders or view folder properties

[Tor Bådshaug]

Lately, I simply cannot understand what is going on in a Windows XP
installation of a friend of mine when it comes to file and folder sharing.
The issue is that when most (not all) folders has the 'Sharing and
Security...' or 'Properties' items from the right-click popup menu selected,
NOTHING happens... The same yields when trying to come into an UI for
setting the sharing properties using 'Share this folder' under 'Files and
Folders tasks'.. Really strange.
I have checked the event log but nothing is reported there either.

I positively know that file sharing worked for the exact same folders
earlier. Two utilities that are new in the system since the last time I knew
file sharing worked are :
Folder Redirector : http://windowsxp.mvps.org/folderredirector.htm and,
2xExplorer : http://netez.com/2xExplorer/

I have tried to use rmtshare.exe from the command line to manage the shares
that way.

I was actually able to unshare one of the "problem folders", but I when I
tried to create a new share I got the following error message : "The command
failed: -1073741819".

Has anybody any clue about why this happens? It is a bit humiliating being
called over as 'an expert' to set up trivial file sharing, when it simply
won't work..

Tor Bådshaug
tor.badshaug(AT)bekk.no

 

[Ramesh, MS-MVP]

Tor,

Have you tried MS-MVP Malke's suggestion you received in xp.general group?
(To uninstall 2xExplorer to isolate the problem). Folder Redirector does not
install any shell extension, nor does variety of changes in the registry,
and never touches the file system. Perhaps a System Restore rollback might
be another good approach.