Make Available Offline and Offline Folders Tab Missing

[Kevin Myers]

Hello,

Not sure whether this is the correct newsgroup, but couldn't spot anything
better. Please redirect me if this is the wrong place...

Running Windows XP Home Edition on a Compaq Presario 700 series laptop
(1.1GHz Duron, 256 MB RAM, 80GB HD). All service packs and hot fixes
applied EXCEPT for service pack 2. On an ethernet peer to peer workgroup
(Windows networking) based network. All other computers on the network are
running Windows 2000 Professional. Have shared folders on all computers,
and can access files on each machine from every other machine.

Want to set up a folder from one of the Win 2K machines as an Offline Folder
for the XP based laptop. However, when I right click on the desired folder
from the laptop (or any other shared folder), there is NO Make Available
Offline option. Also, there is NO Offline Files tab available via
Tools->Folder Options.

I hunted around in the registry looking for the NetCache section for the
group policy that disables all Offline Files capabilities, but couldn't find
any NetCache section at all.

It almost appears as if support for Offline Files is completely missing from
my machine, like Compaq chose not to supply it or something. I can't find
any option via Control Panel->Add/Remove Programs->Add/Remove Windows
Components to install Offline File support either.

On the other hand, if I do the same thing on any of the Win 2K machines, the
Make Available Offline option exists, and it seems to work as intended.

HELP!!! What am I missing???

Thanks,
s/KAM

 

[Rick \Nutcase\ Rogers]

Hi,

Offline files is only available in WinXP Pro.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Associate Expert - WindowsXP Expert Zone

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org

 

[Kevin Myers]

Hi Rick,

I really appreciate your reply. I was worried that offline files might not
be supported in XP Home, but could find absolutely NO documentation to that
effect. I searched my XP Home documentation (seemed to indicate that it
ought to work just fine) and the Microsoft Knowledge Base, then also did
some web searches via Google and AltaVista. Still nothing. No indication
that I could find whatsoever that Offline Files shouldn't work in XP Home.

Any chance that you could point me to an authoritative web link on this
topic? Very disappointing (but not too surprising) to see that my "upgrade"
from Win 2K to XP removed an extremely useful feature. Unfortunately, it's
not the first time (e.g. distinctive ring support for modems...), and I'll
bet it won't be the last either...

ARE YOU LISTENING MICROSOFT???

s/KAM

 

[Rick \Nutcase\ Rogers]

Hi,

An "upgrade" from Win2000 to WinXP Home is not possible, you had to have
done a clean or parallel installation. Win2000 can only be upgraded to WinXP
Pro.

This link shows the feature available in each version:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/home/howtobuy/choosing2.asp

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Associate Expert - WindowsXP Expert Zone

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org

 

[Torgeir Bakken \(MVP\)]

Hi Rick,

I really appreciate your reply. I was worried that offline files might not
be supported in XP Home, but could find absolutely NO documentation to that
effect. I searched my XP Home documentation (seemed to indicate that it
ought to work just fine) and the Microsoft Knowledge Base, then also did
some web searches via Google and AltaVista. Still nothing. No indication
that I could find whatsoever that Offline Files shouldn't work in XP Home.

Any chance that you could point me to an authoritative web link on this
topic?

Hi

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/home/howtobuy/choosing2.mspx

 

[Kevin Myers]

Thanks Torgeir, that's exactly what I was looking for. Too bad the XP Home
help file doesn't reflect this.

s/KAM

 

[Kevin Myers]

Of course you are correct Rick. I was speaking conceptually rather than
being technically accurate. In actual fact, I acquired another machine with
XP Home pre-installed that replaced my older machine which was running Win2K
pro. I guess that it just irks me to unexpectedly find the latest OS
missing features that were in the previous version, even if they can be
purchased in the high dollar version that wasn't included with my new
machine. I suppose I shouldn't have missed that when making my purchase
decision, but then again, if MS hadn't removed the feature then I wouldn't
have had to worry about it! Whine, whine, grumble, grumble...

BTW, I hate pre-installed software. New machine didn't even come with real
XP disks. If I need to reinstall, there is no way to do so except to
restore the original disk image that was supplied with the machine, but
that's another story...

Thanks for the link.

s/KAM

 

[Rick \Nutcase\ Rogers]

Hi Kevin,

I hate preinstalls as well, though the owners of those machines keep me
busy. I really wish the major system makers would revert to at least a
generic disk, but it's just not cost effective for them to do so.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Associate Expert - WindowsXP Expert Zone

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org