Share and Share Alike: Setting Up Your PC for Sharing in Vista

Before you can share your media library content, you have to do some configuration. First, the PC must be connected to your home network, and you must have already configured the PC’s network connection to access your network as a private network. If you haven’t done this, here’s the quickest way.

Right-click the network connection icon in the system tray and choose Network and Sharing Center. Then, in the Network and Sharing Center window that appears, click Customize below the network map and next to your home network (which will typically have a name like Network). In the Set Network Location dialog box that appears, choose Private for location type and click Next. Then click Close. (Make sure you do this for your home network only, and not for any public networks you might visit.)

Please note that you need to repeat this process on any other Windows Vista– based PCs with which you’d like to share media libraries. This step isn’t required for Windows XP.

Next you need to configure Windows Media Player 11 for sharing. To do so, open the Media Player, open the Library menu (by clicking the small arrow below the Library toolbar button), and choose Media Sharing. This will display the Media Sharing dialog box.

In Media Sharing, select the check box Find Media that Others are Sharing if you’d like to find other shared music libraries on your home network. If you want to share the music library on the current PC, select the Share My Media check box, and then examine the icons that represent the various PCs and devices that you can share with. Select each in turn and click the Allow button for the devices with which you’d like to create sharing relationships. As you allow devices, a green check box will appear on their icons, (without the color, of course).

If you’d like to specify the type of content you want to share, click the Settings button. You can choose between music, pictures, and videos, and choose whether to filter via star ratings or parental ratings.

Source of Information : Wiley Windows Vista Secrets SP1 Edition