Problem with Windows Vista Networking with Windows XP

Like many folks, I recently bought a new laptop that has Windows Vista as the OS. I still have computers on my network that use Windows XP. I have a pretty standard SOHO network with a standard LinkSys router, so you'd think this wouldn't be all that tough to do. Well, it wasn't easy at all. I had all kinds of problems getting the Vista machine to even see the XP machines, even though I had done all the obvious stuff (e.g., in the same workgroup, same user id logins used, necessary protocols and so on installed and configured, firewalls tested to see if they were the problem, and more).

In the end, the solution was a buried setting in the registry that needed a tweak:

1. On your Vista machine: Start, Run, regedit
2. Navigate to the following folder: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Lsa
3. In the right, double-click "LmCompatibilityLevel"
4. Change the value to 1 (probably currently 3)
5. Restart your computer

That fixed it... as I was then able to share files between the computers, no problem. Hopefully this will help someone else out there with a similar problem!

Oh, and for info on what that setting is for, see here.