Workgroup network -- I want to bypass the "Enter Network Password" dialog.

[Malke]

How can I make my workgroup network connect up automatically when I
start a computer without having to enter a password every time?

My three computers run XP-Pro, XP-Home, and 98SE. Before I upgraded
the XP-Pro from SP2 to SP3, my three computers could connect by
workgroup.

After I upgraded XP-Pro from SP2 to SP3, the XP-Pro can connect to
files on the other two PCs as before. But when XP-Home and 98SE try to
connect to the XP-Pro they get a dialog box saying:

"Enter Network Password".

How can I bypass/eliminate that dialog?

By creating matching user accounts/passwords on all three machines and
turning off "Use Simple File Sharing" on the XP Pro box.

1. Create matching user accounts and passwords on all machines. You do not
need to be logged into the same account on all machines and the passwords
assigned to each user account can be different; the accounts/passwords just
need to exist and match on all machines. DO NOT NEGLECT TO CREATE
PASSWORDS, EVEN IF ONLY SIMPLE ONES. If you wish a machine to boot directly
to the Desktop (into one particular user's account) for convenience, you
can do this:

XP - Configure Windows to Automatically Login (MVP Ramesh) -
http://windowsxp.mvps.org/Autologon.htm

Uncheck the option "Users must enter a user name and password to use this
computer". Select a user account to automatically log on by clicking on the
desired account to highlight it and then hit OK. Enter the correct password
for that user account (if there is one) when prompted. Leave it blank if
there is no password (null).

2. If one or more of the computers is XP Pro or Media Center, turn off
Simple File Sharing (Folder Options>View tab).

Malke

 

[Stan Hilliard]

How can I make my workgroup network connect up automatically when I
start a computer without having to enter a password every time?

My three computers run XP-Pro, XP-Home, and 98SE. Before I upgraded
the XP-Pro from SP2 to SP3, my three computers could connect by
workgroup.

After I upgraded XP-Pro from SP2 to SP3, the XP-Pro can connect to
files on the other two PCs as before. But when XP-Home and 98SE try to
connect to the XP-Pro they get a dialog box saying:

"Enter Network Password".

How can I bypass/eliminate that dialog?

Stan Hilliard

 

[Malke]

Thanks.
I understand how to do set up the new user on the XP-Pro and XP-Home
computers. But I am not sure about the 98SE. I have never defined a
user on that machine. The 98SE is automatically logged in when it
starts up. I like it that way. Is it possible on 98SE to define a
common user (called commonuser, for example) with a password and still
bypass having to log in for everyday use?


I unchecked "Simple File Sharing".

Then by unchecking Simple File Sharing, did it work? Did you reboot? If not,
please do so.

It has been so long since I fired out my Win98 virtual machine that I had to
Google around for making specific user accounts. Maybe this link will help:

http://www.smartcomputing.com/edito...=articles/archive/l0508/42l08/42l08.asp&guid=

Malke

 

[Stan Hilliard]

By creating matching user accounts/passwords on all three machines and
turning off "Use Simple File Sharing" on the XP Pro box.

1. Create matching user accounts and passwords on all machines. You do not
need to be logged into the same account on all machines and the passwords
assigned to each user account can be different; the accounts/passwords just
need to exist and match on all machines. DO NOT NEGLECT TO CREATE
PASSWORDS, EVEN IF ONLY SIMPLE ONES. If you wish a machine to boot directly
to the Desktop (into one particular user's account) for convenience, you
can do this:

XP - Configure Windows to Automatically Login (MVP Ramesh) -
http://windowsxp.mvps.org/Autologon.htm

Uncheck the option "Users must enter a user name and password to use this
computer". Select a user account to automatically log on by clicking on the
desired account to highlight it and then hit OK. Enter the correct password
for that user account (if there is one) when prompted. Leave it blank if
there is no password (null).

Thanks.
I understand how to do set up the new user on the XP-Pro and XP-Home
computers. But I am not sure about the 98SE. I have never defined a
user on that machine. The 98SE is automatically logged in when it
starts up. I like it that way. Is it possible on 98SE to define a
common user (called commonuser, for example) with a password and still
bypass having to log in for everyday use?

2. If one or more of the computers is XP Pro or Media Center, turn off
Simple File Sharing (Folder Options>View tab).
Malke

I unchecked "Simple File Sharing".

Stan Hilliard

 

[Stan Hilliard]

By creating matching user accounts/passwords on all three machines and
turning off "Use Simple File Sharing" on the XP Pro box.

1. Create matching user accounts and passwords on all machines. You do not
need to be logged into the same account on all machines and the passwords
assigned to each user account can be different; the accounts/passwords just
need to exist and match on all machines. DO NOT NEGLECT TO CREATE
PASSWORDS, EVEN IF ONLY SIMPLE ONES.

As a first step, I tried to get the two XP machines connected by this
method but I think I misread the instructions at first. I created a
user named "commonuser" having the same password on each XP PC. By
unchecking "Simple File Sharing" in the XP-Pro I was able to access
the XP-Pro from the XP-Home. However, it only worked if I was logged
on to "commonuser" on XP-Home. It did not work from my normal user --
which still did not have a password. This suggests that each user on
the XP-Home that wants to access files on the XP-Pro must have
matching username/passwords on each machine. Am I correct?

If you wish a machine to boot directly
to the Desktop (into one particular user's account) for convenience, you
can do this:

XP - Configure Windows to Automatically Login (MVP Ramesh) -
http://windowsxp.mvps.org/Autologon.htm

Uncheck the option "Users must enter a user name and password to use this
computer". Select a user account to automatically log on by clicking on the
desired account to highlight it and then hit OK. Enter the correct password
for that user account (if there is one) when prompted. Leave it blank if
there is no password (null).

I am the main user of the XP-Pro PC, so if I can boot directly to the
desktop even though I will have a password. If I then log off I would
use my password to log back in. Am I thinking correctly on this?

I share the XP-Home PC with my wife. We both need to access at least
the printer on the XP-Pro. So I can't skip the login screen of the
XP-Home. Therefore we can no longer use blank (empty) passwords to log
into our user areas. Is my understanding of this correct? Assuming
that it is, can passwords be a single character in length?

 

[Malke]

As a first step, I tried to get the two XP machines connected by this
method but I think I misread the instructions at first. I created a
user named "commonuser" having the same password on each XP PC. By
unchecking "Simple File Sharing" in the XP-Pro I was able to access
the XP-Pro from the XP-Home. However, it only worked if I was logged
on to "commonuser" on XP-Home. It did not work from my normal user --
which still did not have a password. This suggests that each user on
the XP-Home that wants to access files on the XP-Pro must have
matching username/passwords on each machine. Am I correct?

*Each* user account that will need to access shared resources on a machine
must have a matching user account on the machine hosting the resources.
Network authentication in a Workgroup (as opposed to a domain) is done on
the *local* computer. Example:

Computer 1 - two users, Stan with password 1234 and Mary with password 4567.
Computer 2 - two users, Stan with password 1234 and Mary with password 4567.

Mary will be able to access any of Computer 1's shared resources while she
is logged into her Mary account on Computer 2.

Stan will be able to access any of Computer 2's shared resources while he is
logged into his Stan account on Computer 1.

I am the main user of the XP-Pro PC, so if I can boot directly to the
desktop even though I will have a password. If I then log off I would
use my password to log back in. Am I thinking correctly on this?

You can automatically log into your Stan account (keeping to the example
above) by running control userpasswords2 as detailed in the link I already
gave you. If you want to log off the Stan account on that machine and log
into the Mary account and then back into the Stan account, yes you would
enter your password again. You still have a password; you are just
automatically providing it when you initially start Windows. You can also
temporarily bypass the automatic logon (for ex. if you wanted to go into
Mary's account first) by holding down the Shift key while Windows is
booting.

I share the XP-Home PC with my wife. We both need to access at least
the printer on the XP-Pro. So I can't skip the login screen of the
XP-Home. Therefore we can no longer use blank (empty) passwords to log
into our user areas. Is my understanding of this correct? Assuming
that it is, can passwords be a single character in length?

Networking works better with passwords. Just assign a simple one. Since
security isn't an issue in your case, it could be 1234, the word
"password", or even your names. As long as the passwords for each account
match on each computer you'll be fine. Mary with password 4567 must exist
on both Computer 1 and Computer 2. Mary with password 4567 and Mary with
password 7896 on the other machine will fail.

Surely clicking on your user account icon on the Welcome Screen and typing
something simple like "1234" isn't too onerous.

Malke

 

[Anteaus]

On Win9x there is no userprofiling by default. If one one user exists and
has no password, then logon is automatic. To change the logged-on user is
simply a matter of logging off (start/shutdown) and entering a new name with
no password.

(Wish XP was as simple <g>)