File sharing or data sharing over LAN is required to share data, file, music or video etc. for several purposes for a group of people or a group of students etc. File sharing can be done through local LAN or over Internet. But in this page, only over local LAN file or data sharing will be described. The procedure for file sharing or data sharing is quiet same for Windows machine. If your computer's operating system is Windows XP or Windows 2000 or Windows 2000 Server or Windows 98, file or data sharing is quite similar. This page contains the step by step guide to share folders or files or movies on Windows XP or any other Windows operating system.

The steps of sharing files or folders or movies are described below:

Step 1:

At first select the folder or file or drive which you want to share over a LAN. After selecting, right click on that folder and go to the Properties of that folder. For example, I want to share "My Movies" folder over the LAN. So, I go to "C:\My Movies" and right click on that folder and then select it's properties.

Now, form the properties window, select Sharing tab. In that window, you will notice If you understand the security risks but want to share files without running the wizard, click here. Click on that text.

Form Enable File Sharing window, select Just enable file sharing and click on OK button.

Put tick mark on the check box Share this folder on the network by a single click. At last, click on OK button.

Moreover, you can do a little modification to your shared files or folders or movies. Here, we just show you how to share folders only. But that's not at all. You can also change the name of the folders or files or movies name as you wish and also give permission the no of uses to access your shared folders or files or movies. To do this follow the following things:

• Name the shared folders or files or movies a different name to share: There is no obligation that the folders or movies or files name which are you sharing, will be same as the original name of your files or folders or movies. For example, here the original name of the folder is Movies. You may change it. For example you may change it as Shared Movies or Recent Movies etc. whatever you like. When you shared this name the files or folders or movies will be shared to others with the shared name only. For doing this, just write the name in the Share name field.
• Change the access permission of your shared folders or files or movies: There is another interesting thing. You can also change the shared files or folders or movies access permission to different level. There is an option marked as Allow network users to change my files. If you enable this option, any user of the LAN can change, modify or delete your shared files or folders or movies. This option is really a great importance. If you use some files or folders to developing purposes among the team members then it's really an important thing. But in local LAN, it's not so important. If you do this, anyone can delete or change your files or folders or movies. So, be careful when you enable this feature.
  

That's all. By following the above steps you can easily share your files and folders in your Windows XP, over a local LAN.

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