Restrict access under SMB sharing

Your tip was a good one--Creating a new standard user account for my Windows user name did indeed add that user name to the list under SMB sharing, allowing me to select that one specific user for access to one specific folder. Unfortunately, my success was short-lived, and I am back to not having it work again. See the full thread in the Apple discussion for the full details.

Albereto Ravasio: Actually, the user I created in the Sharing control panel actually was a "sharing only" user. When I took the tip from the other responder in this forum, BDAqua, to create a new standard user account for my Windows user name, that did indeed add that user name to the selectable list under SMB sharing, allowing me to select that one specific user for access to one specific folder.

I combined this innovation with a tip I found elsewhere online about changing the name of the workgroup setting in the Network/Advanced/WINS/Workgroup name to "workgroup." This temporarily allowed access to the single designated folder on my Mac from the Win7 machine. But after I restarted the Win7 machine for other reasons, I could no longer access my SMB share on my Mac. And I still can't.

I notice that in Network/Advanced/WINS/Workgroup name, the control panel is incapable of holding the name "workgroup," or any workgroup name, after I hit "OK" and "apply." It simply vanishes back to a blank field, and with it my ability to connect to this SMB folder has vanished.

Another really annoying thing about viewing a Mac SMB folder from Windows 7--There is no obvious way to disconnect from such shares, except for restarting. When you right-click on the word "Network" in a Windows window, and right-click to choose the "disconnect network drive . . ." command, the subsequent window that's supposed to allow you to select network drives to disconnect is empty! Though I clearly have at least a network folder available, it apparently doesn't qualify as a network "drive" and thus can't be selected for disconnection. As I said, the only way I've found to disconnect a Mac SMB share from Windows is by restarting Windows. What an utterly bizarre, obtuse, and confounding operating system Windows continues to be!

Okay, so Mac has some bizarre sharing features, too: When I click "Options" in Sharing, and have "share files and folders using afp" checked along with "Share files and folders using SMB", the share becomes invisible to my Win7 machine when trying to view the Mac folder from Windows. When I uncheck AFP, it suddenly becomes visible (even though SMB is selected in both instances). Actually, scratch that--You can re-enable AFP once you've made the initial connection via SMB, and the now-"mounted" share remains conencted.

But one thing that leads me to believe the two are mutually exclusive: When you select "Share...AFP" in "Options", the "status message" in the main Sharing pane says "File Sharing: On" and indicates what appears to be access instructions for Macs. When you uncheck that "Share...AFP" box on and simply leave the SMB sharing box checked in "Options", that message changes to "Windows Sharing: On". This would indicate to me that you can't share one folder with just Mac users and another folder with just Windows users at the same time. Pick your shared OS, and only those properly equipped need apply for Sharing.

Which "pref pane window" are you referring to? The one for WINS settings, or another one?