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With Mac OS X Panther came a simplified networking experience, particularly when it comes to sharing folders and files with Windows machines. Enabling access to a computer running Windows 7 from a machine running OS X requires very little configuration. However, file and folder sharing between Windows 7 and OS X machines isn’t quite an 'out of the box' feature. Here’s what you need to do in order to make it work.

Before You Begin - List of Prerequisites
Before you attempt to network your Mac and PC, there are a few basic preparation steps. First and foremost, you must have your machines connected to the same network. That is, plugged into the same router or on the same WiFi network. We know you knew that already, but just in case…

Next, you should figure out the IP address of each machine. Now, this isn’t the same IP address that the world sees when you’re out surfing the World Wide Web. The IP address you need is the local one that is assigned by the router. More often than not, it will be some variation of 192.168.1.x.

To figure this out on your Windows 7 machine, click 'Start -> Accessories -> Command Prompt'.



Once Command Prompt is open, type ipconfig and press Enter. Windows will spit out a whole bunch of text—what you’re looking for is the IP address that comes after IPv4 Address. In this case, it’s 192.1681.5.



Next, you’ll want to find the IP address for your Macbook. You won’t need it for this tutorial, but it’ll be handy for later networking tutorials. You can find this by opening up the Network pane in System Preferences.



Your IP address will be underneath the Status item. Here, it’s 192.168.1.8.



Now, that all the machines are connected and we know the IP addresses, let’s move on.

Preparing Your Windows 7 Machine
In order to get your Windows 7 machine up and running, all you need to do is activate File Sharing and choose which folders you want to share. For instructions on turning on File Sharing, read How to Customize Network Sharing Settings in Windows 7.

To learn how to choose which folders to share, read Share Libraries or Folders Using Advanced Sharing.

After that, your Windows 7 machine is ready to go. Now, let’s hop on over to our Mac.

Setting Your Macintosh’s Workgroup
In order to share folders between your Windows 7 computer and Macintosh, you may need to set the workgroup name on your Mac to be the same as on your PC. If you haven’t changed the workgroup name on your Windows 7, this step will be unnecessary, since both Windows 7 and OS X use "workgroup" as the default name. (Oddly, the two test machines used in this tutorial had differing workgroup names and the connection was still successful, so you may not need to perform this step at all.)

To change your Macintosh workgroup name, access the Network pane in System Preferences and choose the device that connects you to your network. Click Advanced and choose the WINS tab.



In the field labeled "workgroup", type in the name of your Windows 7 workgroup.

For more information on your Windows 7 workgroup, read How to Change the Workgroup in Windows 7.



Connecting with Your Macintosh
From your Mac, open up a Finder window, click Go and then 'Connect to server'. Alternately, you can use the key combination Command-K (a.k.a Apple-K or ⌘-K).
NOTE: For this keyboard shortcut to work, you must be focused on a Finder window.



In the Connect to Server window, type your Windows 7 machine’s IP address after 'smb://'. For this example, it’s 'smb://192.168.1.5'. Next, click Connect.



You’ll be asked to enter in a name and password. To log in, enter your Windows username and password. These are the same credentials you would use when logging into your Windows 7 user account when you first start your machine.



Once you enter in your password correctly, you will be asked which volumes you’d like to mount. Your choices will consist of all the shared folders on your Windows 7 machine. Choose which one you’d like to mount and click OK. (NOTE: You can mount multiple volumes by holding Shift as you select each folder name.)



You’ll now see your Windows 7 machine in two places: on the left-hand sidebar under Shared and listed with your other volumes when you click on your Macintosh’s name under Devices. When you click on your Windows 7 machine’s icon under Shared, you’ll see the other shared folders which you did not mount. You can browse them and access them as if they were mounted.



You can browse the contents of your Windows 7 machine just like it was a local drive. You should also have full read/write privileges, since you are logged in under the same user account as if you were sitting at the keyboard in front of your Windows 7 machine.



Automatically Mounting Your Windows 7 Machine on OS X
One last trick before we go: if you want to forgo the entire process of mounting your Windows 7 machine each time you reboot, you can add it to the login items on OS X. Open up the Accounts pane in System Preferences and click the 'Login Items' tab.



Now, pop open a Finder window and find the volume that represents your Windows 7 machine. (Remember, it’ll probably be called Users.) Simply drag and drop it into the 'Login Items' window. Now, next time you reboot, it’ll automatically mount it.



Conclusion
As you can see, there isn’t much technical trickery involved in getting Windows 7 to allow OS X access to its files. Stay tuned for our next tutorial which will cover how to do the opposite - access OS X files from Windows 7. Until then, check out some related articles.