By default, on computers running Windows XP Professional and not joined to a domain, all incoming network connections are forced to use the Guest account. This means that an incoming connection, even if a user name and password is provided, has only Guest-level access to the share. Because of this, either the Guest user account or the Everyone group (the only group to which the Guest account belongs) must have permissions on the share and on the directories and files that are shared. It also means that, in contrast to Windows 2000, you do not need to configure matching user accounts on computers to share files. Because Windows XP Professional supports Anonymous connections, and because it severely limits the use of the Everyone group in file system permissions, granting the Everyone group access to shared folders does not present the security problem that it does on Windows 2000–based computers.
ForceGuest is enabled by default, but can be disabled on Windows XP Professional by disabling the local security policy Network Access: Force Network Logons using Local Accounts to Authenticate as Guest. By contrast, on Windows XP Professional–based computers joined to a domain, the default sharing and security settings are the same as in Windows 2000. Likewise, if the ForceGuest policy setting on a Windows XP Professional–based computer not joined to a domain is disabled, then the computer behaves as in Windows 2000.
Sharing Files and Folders Using the Simple Sharing User Interface
To simplify configuring sharing and to reduce the possibility of misconfiguration, Windows XP Professional uses the Simple Sharing User Interface (UI). The simple sharing UI appears if ForceGuest is turned on; the traditional sharing and security tabs are shown if ForceGuest is turned off.
On computers running Windows XP Professional that are not joined to a domain, ForceGuest is turned on by default. To access the traditional sharing and security tabs and manage permissions manually on these computers, go to Windows Explorer or My Computer, click the Tools menu, click Folder Options, click the View tab, and then clear the Use simple file sharing (Recommended) check box. Note that changes made manually cannot be undone by using the simple sharing UI, and although you might make what appears to be a reasonable change to permissions, the resultant permissions might not work as expected if ForceGuest is subsequently turned on.
