This is going to sound strange, since it makes little sense, but it MAY just work in getting your Microsoft Windows Vista machine[s] to network with other operating systems on a home network, in particular Windows XP machines.

Turn off the firewall on all machines. Your shares on other XP machines should then become apparent. Map your share drives and install any printers while the firewalls are off. Once you have all shares and printers setup, turn back on the firewalls. Hopefully this should work for you.

Reboot all systems to confirm everything is working correctly.

Another thing to try is switching the network from “private” to “public”
This worked for me. Your mileage may vary.

If anyone has any suggestions about networking with Vista, please post your comments.

Tags: microsoft, windows, vista, networking, problems