Sharing Windows Files With a Mac

Apple has attempted to make file sharing as simple as possible, but you still might need a few words of advice to get through the process. Start by opening up System Preferences (located under the Apple pull-down menu) and double-clicking the Sharing Preference. You’ll see several sharing options listed, one of them for Windows Sharing. Put a check mark by it. When you do so, you’ll be asked to select which accounts on the Mac to share. You’ll need to enter the password for whatever account you choose, so you can only share your own accounts.

Once that’s done, your computers should be ready to share files. You shouldn’t need to restart them first. Open up the finder and then select the Network icon from the upper left corner. You’ll see several new entries. Find the one with the name of the home network, which you will have set if you ran through the Network Setup Wizard. Click it and you’ll see the names of all the computers on your network. Select one and you’ll get a gray box with a Connect button under it. This represents a different computer on the network. Click the button and enter that computer’s password, if there is one, and then select which of the shared folders you’d like to view.

To find the Mac’s shared folder, open up a Finder window and select your account name from the lower left. You’ll see a folder called Public within it. Anything in this folder will be shared over the network.

To see the Mac’s shared folder on the Windows computer, open My Network Places from the Start menu. You’ll see your own locally stored folders, as well as one representing content on the Mac. Double-click this to open it.

Troy Dreier is a freelance tech writer based in the New York City area.