XP Home - disable sharing -MS Steady State?
 

I wish to disable sharing of folders across user accounts in XP home, a little like an administrator is able to achieve in XP Pro, I believe.

Put simply, when someone uses the guest (or other limited user) account, I don't want them to be able to browse folders on any other account, including the admin account.

Does anyone happen to know if the Steady State program, by MS, will achieve this?

I know from a squiz of the help files and a read of a couple of tutorials, that I can use it to block access to selected programs, etc, sounds good, but can it also block access to my personal files/programs/pictures etc?

I've tried to RTFM, but it's 98 pages long, so thought I'd pick some brains instead. Or as well as.

Thanks,
Tarq.

I don't see any reference to file shares in the description of Steady State on the Microsoft website (Download details: SteadyState)

A quick Google also picked up this little gem ....

That looks like it might do the job.
Tks, BOAC.

Interestingly, a similar Google search led me to believe that steadtstate might be able to achieve something similar, in that I was searching for 'disable file sharing xp home' (or similar) and that led me to the ms page.

BOAC, does one have to log in to the hidden administrator account, or any admin account?

Dunno! I just have the link in my 'comeinhandy' box. I would have thought all accounts with 'Admin' privileges are the same?

All administrator accounts are equivalent. To control file and folder access on a single machine, you need to set permissions on the files and folders. I don't remember if the Home Edition of XP exposes the user interface required to do this, but all the infrastructure beneath is there, so if you have a tool to manipulate permissions, you can do whatever you want. Permissions must be changed with care or you can lock yourself out of things that might be awkward to recover. Windows 7 sets permissions by default that isolate users from each other and allow only administrator access to certain files and folders. This is true even in the Home Edition (or Premium Home Edition, or whatever Microsoft calls it these days).