'Simple file sharing'; 'Sharing'; and HP devices

This message appears as 'for Paul Baker printer only connects...' in the
printers group, but the observations should be of interest to the general XP
group, and users of HP devices, as it highlights a case where 'simple file
sharing' prevented a device from working properly for all users: in fact,
having the opposite effect to what one intuitively expects in ticking the
box. There are other points made - on the lack of a 'Power Users' option
when accounts are set up for example - and I would appreciate any further
observations on any or all of these.


Paul,

Have continued reading around these columns picking up ideas here and there,
and can finally start to make a little sense:

I picked up that there were 'permissions' that could be applied, but could
not find the 'security' tabs mentioned until today, coming across another
thread that mentioned having to turn off 'simple file sharing' (a rather
counter intuitive idea!) in order to see these tags.

In doing this I found that the 'printer' part of the HP device did not even
have a 'Users' section in its groups/permissions list. Curiously enough
though, the basic printer functions have been available to all users and
administrators - even when two or more are logged on to the pc at the same
time - despite this omission!?

On the other hand the other HP files relating to the other functions of the
device (copier; fax; scan; manage docs), did have the Users group, but with
few permissions ticked. So, in the programme tree I set all the HP files to
permit most device manager functions for this device to Users - all but
'full control' in fact.

I was pleasantly surprised to find that these changes enabled my User
accounts to access the full device functionality at last, and that this was
maintained even when 'simple file sharing' was turned back on!

There is still one more unanswered question/glitch though, in that when
'fast user switching' between logged on accounts, each user has unbroken
access to the printer functions, but for other functions a 'device not
connected' message pops up: one has to either turn the HP off and on again,
or log off the other users before 'switching'. So why is it possible to
switch smoothly with the printing functions but not the copy; fax; scan
functions on the same device?




An observation on 'Sharing'

There seem to be a number of different meanings of the word 'sharing' and it
has gotten quite confusing and hindered me sorting this problem. Up until I
found this 'use simple file sharing' option, it had seemed that the word
applied only to networked systems (attempts to tick 'share this...'
resulting in unhelpful messages such as 'Service not started'), yet, at the
same time there were curious invitations to use a 'shared documents folder',
which it seems does not - in name at least - appear on our pc.

In 'My Computer' we do see Shared Music/Pictures etc, but we only have to
assume that the folder labelled 'Documents' of which these are subfolders,
should actually be labelled 'Shared Documents' - and indeed, if we click on
properties for this we do in fact find there is an unseen 'All Users' folder
above 'Documents' in the tree. If this is not a fault of our own set up,
then MS would save a lot of confusion if the 'Documents' under 'My Computer'
was relabelled properly to 'Shared Documents' or even just 'Shared' -
because it's not just documents we might want to put in there (would it be
ok for me to do this?. Then when we right click folder properties and are
confronted with "to share this folder with other users of this computer
only, drag it to the Shared Documents folder" it might begin to make sense!

Having found this 'All Users' section in Explorer, I then find that all the
programmes on the pc already seem to be represented in it, even though there
is no 'Shared Programmes' folder and I did not put them there! I had began
to think that setting up such a folder and installing the HP files there
instead of under Programmes, might solve the problem, but if they already
get a mention in the 'All Users' section then presumably this would not have
worked?

The 'shared' folders under 'My Computer' seem to remain in place whether
'simple file sharing' is enabled or not, so what exactly does this setting
do, and why is it enabled as the default when it can cause so much hassle to
those actually wanting to share anything other than the odd photo?

(And frankly, I think the whole 'My Computer' idea is just a confusion
making device, and would very much like to go back to the old straight
forward C:\ based tree where every file and folder only appeared once, and
appeared in the right order!)


Hope this follow up is of use to you: it may be more generally useful to HP
users: - from various messages others have submitted about using HP devices
it might be a fact that HP factory set the permissions of their devices to
Administrators and Power Users only, even though, if our XP set up is
typical, there are no options for setting 'Power Users' in the Log on
alternatives one is given! . As those who have opted for a typical
installation will also have enabled 'simple file sharing' without realising
what this entails, they will, like me, see no options for resetting the HP
device to allow wider usage, and will, likely remain baffled. ( I still do
not know how to activate a Power Users group when setting up accounts, nor
why TweakUIXP finds ''unknown accounts' that are actually 'printer operator'
accounts', which have numbers in TweakUIXP but no other visible presence on
the pc!)


So that about covers it: I hope!

If you have any ideas as to how to get the other functions of the HP device
to work with 'fast user switching' as the printer functions apparently are
able, that would be the icing on the cake.

Thanks once again for your help and patience,

Regards,

SteveH