Discussion on:

How do I... Connect Windows Vista to a Macintosh network?

When I was trying to connect Mac from my PC (Vista Home Premium),
Vista always refused my correct user name and passoword. The
problem is the "group policy" function is not available on Vista Home
Premium edition, so how can I adjust "LAN Manager authentication
levels" to get my PC and Mac connected?

This is simpler then you think but if not known like me you can spend days searching for a solution. So here goes I hope it helps:



On your MAC

1. Go to Application > Utilities > System Prefrences

2. Click Sharing

3. Then check File Sharing

4. On the right add Folders and set Read access for Users.



OK now go to your VISTA computer or laptop and follow these steps:



1. Click Windows Vista Orb

2. In search box write REGEDIT

3. Authenticate by pressing Continue

4. On Regedit click on HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE

5. Now Click File > Export this will backup your registry

6. OK now click on HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE > System > CurrentControlSet > Control > Lsa

7. In the right pane right click the "LmCompatibilityLevel" key and select Modify

8. Change this value from 3 to 1

9. Exit REGEDIT and now you should see your MAC in your Network

10. You can access your Network on Vista by clicking Vista Orb (bottom left on the desktop what used to be Start in Windows XP) and clikc Network.



Hope this helps. All the best from corporateskills.co.uk

I second shizhimeng's question regarding Vista Premium. Windows will not accept my user name and password. What gives?

Have you found an answer to this problem as I am having exactly the same issue! Help!

I'm having the same problem with Vista Home Premium and my Mac running 10.3.9. I can access the PC from the Mac, but I can get my logon/pw to work so that I can access the Mac from the PC. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Has anybody found the solution with Vista Home Premium? I would hate to spend the bucks upgrading to another Vista version just for this.

To connect a Mac to Vista, or XP if I am not mistaken. You need to map a network drive.

In explorer first make sure that you can see the menu:
Go to Organize, select layout and select menu.

then on Tools select Map Network Drive.

Select a drive and for folder type the server name and mac user account: \\servername\user

then click on connect using a different user name.

Type the user name and password.

Click ok, then finish and that should do it.

This was tried on windows vista home premium.

Both mac and pc were sharing the same workgroup name.

Hope this helps

David,
I was able to map my user folder on my Dual-Core iMac to my Vista box using the following procedures:

Drive mapping:

Z:
\\Core2\Users\greg

Windows Authentication
Username: 192.xxx.xx.x\greg (IP of the originating Vista host\username on Mac)

Password: ########
(Password on iMac)

I moved about 4GB of camera raw files from the iMac to the Vista box. The transfer was painfully slow and took about 8 hours to complete. When I transfer files between other Macs on the same network the speed is much higher and actually prior to the Vista install, network transfers between my XP box and Macs was actually robust.

Greg Zenitsky
Lee's Summit, MO

The group policy change worked for me, but a friend said you can change this registry key from 1 to 3 for Home editions:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Lsa\LMCompatibilityLevel

In my Windows Vista Business Configuration, the authentication worked, after I set the aforementioned Security Policy

I am using Vista Home Basic, and the OS refuse to process the username/password properly between the Windows and Mac.

Please help!!

Useless article. This is "how to do a simple file share from mac to vista" not how to connect vista to a macintosh network.
Now an article on how to have vista authenticate through opendirectory, that would be worthy of this article name.

Thanks a lot. I already had the network working but couldn't access from Vista Business 64 to any Mac computers (login denied). I changes the security policiy and it worked.

Phil

You're suggestion on the Local Security Policy saved me...Vista connecting to Mac OS 10.3.5. Thanks so much!!!

very thorough, plainly written and helpful

This is an excellently useful post - very simple to follow (didn't miss out any of the little details that a dummy like me doesn't always know about!). Thanks!

BUT... It still doesn't work for me.

Vista doesn't process my username and password.

I tried finding the Local Security Policy as you suggested, but my version of Vista doesn't have it... must be a cheap version! So I'm still stuck.
Have spent nearly an entire day trying to get this network sorted... have searched forums high and low.

Any ideas?

Hello Everyone,

I am using MAC OSX 10.6 (mac book pro) I dont see windows file sharing and also directory access to share my mac book to my windows vista.
Can u suggest in this case.

Regards
Jayanth

Thanks a lot! It worked perfectly.