I have installed Windows 7 on a new partition on my Vista machine so it is now dual-boot. I have two other machines on my network, both running Vista. The installation went very smoothly indeed except for one thing - getting onto my network to connect up with my other two machines. The installation, including creating the new partition took less than half an hour as once started I was able to leave the installation process unattended. This is a huge advance on previous installation procedures. Getting my network sorted then took between 2 and 3 hours! It was a nightmare. The main problem comes from Win7's insistence on creating a homegroup during installation. This is as much use as a chocolate teapot unless you have other boxes running Win7 which I knew I hadn't. I eventually worked out how to turn off the homegroup but there is absolutely no indication whatsoever in the Network Centre about how to set up a work group in order to talk to my Vista boxes. The Help files were totally useless on the subject. I eventually found the settings, but not before cursing Microsoft to the heavens. I cannot be the only person who will want to install Win7 on one machine and get it to talk to a Work Group on an existing network. It is pie in the sky to assume that everyone will convert their entire suite of machines in one hit. Even if I had decided to convert them all, I couldn't necessarily do it all on one day. There needs to be a question early in the installation procedure: Do you wish to set up a new 'homegroup' which requires all computers to be running Windows 7 or do you wish to connect your computer to an existing Work Group? If you choose the latter it should then ask the name of the Work Group and continue accordingly.

I have the same issues - legacy hardware with workgroup based network (not just pcs but also media players, nas boxes, etc)Its tempting to think of this as a MS marketing motivator - gee - "you better upgrade all those systems to windows7" But that doesn't cover the embeded storage type products. For a new home just starting out, homegroups looks really easy to setup - so grats there to MS, and the discovery of legacy networking is really good (I can access all the workgroup shares from win7 - just can't figure how to share out from the new box).

I had no problem sharing files between Windows 7 beta or RC with my Vista machine. On Vista in the Network and sharing Center, I have all components turned on. Network discoveryfile sharing public sharingpublic folder sharingprinter sharing (not needed in this case)password protected sharingMedia sharingI can't remember for sure but I think what the sure token of getting it to work was turning on Media sharing and file sharing.

My problem is that having installed Windows 7 RC on my machine my daughter is home from the summer with her laptop still running XP Professional. We would like to share files folders for backup of her uni work but how do we achieve that?