How to access Mac files on a Windows PC

Posted on February 29, 2008 at 6:25 am

Apple is becoming more popular everyday (I might buy a MacBook Pro soon myself!), yet most people still have Windows PCs at home. If you have both Macs and PCs running, you are probably going to want to share files between your Mac and PC. You can either go two way: access Mac files on a Windows PC or access Windows files on a Mac.

Today I’m going to talk about how you can share files on your Mac and access them on your PC. The process is fairly simple and should work as long as you are on the same network and don’t have any crazy security settings configured on your Mac.

The first thing you’ll need to do is enable Windows sharing on your Mac. Here’s how to do it.

Enable Windows Sharing on Mac

First go to the System Preferences menu option and click on the Sharing icon.

You’re now going to want to click on the Services tab on the Sharing dialog. Here is where you can turn on Windows Sharing on your Mac.

When you check off the Windows Sharing box, you will be asked to choose the user’s files that you want to share. You may have to click Enable Accounts or click the Accounts button to pull up the list of accounts.

Notice in the second image above (on the Services tab) the address that is given to access the Mac computer from windows, i.e. \\MyComputer\Aseem. It will probably give you the IP address instead of the computer name, something like \\192.168.0.01\Aseem.

And that’s about it! There’s really nothing else that you have to do to turn on sharing on your Mac. Now the only issue is to connect via your PC. Here’s how do to that.

The easiest way to connect is to use the Run command from the Start Menu. Click on Start, then Run and type in the IP address or computer name shown above:

Now you’ll get a dialog box where you have to enter the username and password for your Mac user account that is being shared. You can also store the password if you don’t want to type it over again.

You’ll now see your Mac files and folders in Windows Explorer! You can also now copy files from your Mac to your PC or vice versa. It’s as simple as that!

If you have any trouble sharing your Mac files with your PC, post a comment and I’ll see if I can help. I’ll also be writing a guide on how to access your PC files from your Mac, which is a tad bit harder, but still not too bad. Enjoy!

[tags]share files between mac and pc, access mac from pc, access mac files on pc, share mac files on pc[/tags]

» Filed Under Computer Tips

Comments

9 Responses to “How to access Mac files on a Windows PC”

Ligia said on : March 31st, 2008 at 10:00 pm

Ola, faço todas as etapas que voce descreve, mas quando pede a senha, nao aceita a senha com a qual entro no Mac. Que senha tem que ser inserida ai? pode me responder por email? lilica_animamundi@hotmail.com

Yuri said on : May 5th, 2008 at 2:05 pm

boa tarde..
gostaria de saber se alguem pode me ajudar!!!!!
com micros mac e windows…ela funciona perfeitamente
mas justamente o servidor nao e visto pelas maquinas
windows…os outros mac sao visto.
ja fui em system preferences…sharing..mas nao possui a opçao
windows sharing..como faço para ela aparecer???
obrigado!!

rikardo said on : July 30th, 2008 at 3:32 pm

i did all the steps
but when the pc ask me for the user and the pasword
i dont know what to put
can u help me?

Joe said on : August 9th, 2008 at 6:32 pm

I did the steps, except on my mac it’s “file sharing” and not “windows sharing”… but anyway, when I access my mac from the PC, all I see is an icon for Printers and Faxes. No folders, not even the folders I set up to be shared on the mac. Can you help please?

Connie said on : October 14th, 2008 at 7:08 pm

My question is, how can I make my Windows Vista Home Premium, 32-bit OS, read a collection of files (recipes) burned on CDs generated on a Mac OS 10? Any suggestion will be greatly appreciated.

ella said on : November 12th, 2008 at 1:33 pm

I have gone through all the steps a million times but every time I type in the IP Address or the computer name in the run, it says it cant find it. Same with my printer sharing. The sharing is on but everytime I try to print it says there is an error. Please help.

Craig said on : May 1st, 2009 at 7:18 pm

I can access my mac desktop, but only for about 5 seconds… Then all folders disappear and a box pops up on my windows machine saying

“\\new-host.home\ is not accessible. You might not have permission to use this network resource. Contact the administrator of this server to find out if you have access permissions.

The specified network name is no longer available.”

Thanks for the help!

David said on : June 26th, 2009 at 3:18 pm

I get as far as the username and password input.

everything i put in the computer rejects, telling me that its the wrong username or password.

what exactly do i have to put, the username and password for the acount i enabled windows sharing on?

Joe said on : August 3rd, 2009 at 2:01 pm

My wife has a new laptop with Windows Vista 64 bit. File sharing is turned on within the iMac. The iMac can log into and see all files on her laptop hard drive and her Public folder. The laptop sees the iMac on the network and when one double clicks on it, a dialog box for user name and password appears. However, the user name and password for the iMac administrator account do not work, i.e. “the system cannot log you in, etc.” Is this a 64 bit Windows issue?

Also trying to see a Apple Time Capsule in the same manner but it’s been far more problematic to appear on the laptop as a drive.

Help is appreciated.

Thanks!