Connecting to Mac File Sharing via Vista
Saturday, March 17th, 2007Matt Riggins writes:
I upgraded a machine in my office to Vista to get a feel for the OS, how it works, etc.
I use both a variety of Windows and Mac boxes and the first thing I noticed after upgrading to Vista was that I was unable to connect to the Mac’s SMB File Sharing. Typically in the windows address bar under XP pro I would type:
\IP Address\username (the username being the short name on the OS X user account)
It would prompt me for a username and password, which I would type. (The os x username/pw) The share would come up (the user’s folder) and I was done.
This did not work in Vista. It would ask me for the username / password, but typing it didn’t work.
I googled it and came across this great post:
http://www.macfixit.com/article.php?story=20070226082237597
There are a couple of things to try on this post. The first being from Vista using the command line trying to login using IPAddressUsername together. I tried that, with no luck. The 2nd step is a registry edit in vista. I make this change and it now allows me to share to OS X again:
- “Click Windows Visa Start Orb
- In search box, type “regedit” and return
- Once regedit opens, click File -> export to make a backup copy
- Navigate to Computer HKEYLOCALMACHINE SYSTEM CurrentControlSet Control Lsa.
- In the right pane, right-click the “LmCompatibilityLevel” key and select “modify”
- Change the value from 3 to 1
- Exit regedit and you should now be able to properly authenticate to your Mac OS X (or other Samba) share.”
Matt Riggins

