PCA Forums

I am a grad student and have access to 15+ network folders on 3 different campuses. In order to access these folders I would just create a shortcut with \\server\folder, that way I didn't need to have to deal with the problems of mapping drives and not always having access to all of them etc. The system worked fine until I just ran a fresh reinstall of XP on my laptop. Now when I try to do the same thing I get the following
.

For the life of me I can't figure out how to get XP to allow me to log in as a different user. I have turned off the Guest user under user profiles as well as uncheck "Use simple file sharing" which were suggestions that I have received from someone else, neither of which worked. If you guys have any insight into this I would really appreciate it. Thanks a ton.

This in WinXP Pro I assume? XP Home has serious issues with what you're trying to do.

If it's a WinXP Home install then more than likely someone upgraded you to Pro previously, or else they used a hack to allow Home to perform normal Pro-type network logons.

It's VERY strange that the username is grayed out and you can't change it. XP and 2K should let you enter any username and password you want since some network use different logons for different servers.

- Are you sure that "Client for Microsoft Networks" is enabled in your network connection?

- Can you see the network if you go into My Network Places and View Workgroup Computers?

- Is this a corporate network that requires you to logon to a Domain Server? I'm wondering if you haven't logged onto the domain server and thus the network is unavailable to you. If so you need to change the setting in "Computer Name" to connect to a Domain not a Workgroup (right click My Computer, Properties, Computer Name).


I don't think this is your issue, but it's worth noting that the real username is not the one you see in XP's start menu next to the avatar - you can't configure it from "User Accounts" in Control Panel. Instead go to Administrative Tools > Computer Management > Local Users and Groups > Users.

Name is the 'real" network user name. "Full Name" is the "familiar" name that XP uses.

Hope this helps...

Yeah I thought it was strange that it was greyed out. I am using XP Pro (direct install not upgraded from Home editiion).
I do have Client for Microsoft Networks enabled
I can see other computers on the network
Not a domained network

I didn't know about that user thing under Administrative Tools. Do you think that deleting Guest would work? I'm somewhat reluctant to do it but let me know if you have any other ideas. Thanks :-)

Definately wierd. Never seen anything like that before and a casual search on Google didn't turn up anything.

I wouldn't delete the Guest account, just disable it.

In XP Pro ANY changes you make to user accounts should be done from the User settings under Admin Settings NOT User Accounts in Control Panel.

You sure you're logged into an account with administrative privaledges?

Usually that box appears when usernames on machines don't match or passwords don't. Is the guest account passworded on the remote servers? If so change your Guest acct password to the password and enable the account. Could probably help it.

But the strange thing is, Busby, that the username is grayed out. Look at the picture.

In XP that box does come up if your local username and password don't match the ones on the shared network resource, but Windows allows you to enter a unique username and password for each shared resource. He should be able to change the username but he can't.

Can't that be controlled on the server to restrcit the username access?


Did you run the correct network setup wizard? I have had that cause problems for me before. Stupid XP and requiring every user to run a wizard to get sharing and networking running correctly.

I just ran into the same problem on a clean install of xp pro

haven't figured it out so far

Are your resources on multiple domains ? is your domain fragmented ?