If you’re trying to get shares to work using the HDX 1000, you’re probably struggling like crazy. Luckily, the Networked Media Tank Wiki has a nice tutorial on how to setup shared folders for use with the Samba protocol. If you’ve never heard of Samba, neither had I, but it’s not really important. It will work either way, without installing anything on your PC or the HDX. The NMTWiki tutorial is great if you’re trying to share folders. However, when trying to share entire drives – e.g. “C:” or “D:” – then you’re up for a surprise.

First of all, the wizard mentioned in the tutorial, doesn’t popup. Apparently Microsoft decided that sharing drives is different from sharing folders. Secondly, after having added an account yourself, it still doesn’t work. Since it took me a while to figure it out, I can imagine other people are struggling with this as well, so I made this step-by-step guide.

Important steps before taking this tutorial:

1. Read the NMTWiki tutorial. This gives a lot of insight in things.
2. Configure your network and setup a Guest account as described in the tutorial.

After having taken the two easy steps above, take this tutorial and you should be streaming movies, music and other media in no-time!

Step 1: select a drive to share. Right click on it and select "Share...".

Step 2: in the "Sharing" tab click "Advanced Sharing...". If you get a Windows confirmation window asking if you want to proceed, click "Continue" (or something similar).

Step 3: check the box labeled "Share this folder" and enter a name for it in the field underneath it (try to avoid spaces). Then click "Permissions".

Step 4: this window shows you who has access to the shared drive. Check to see if there is a user labeled "Guest". If not, select "Add...".

Step 5: you could try typing in "Guest" (without quotes) and click "OK". Most of the times that works, but if it doesn't (like in my case), click "Advanced...".

Step 6: click on "Find Now" on the right. This will list all users and groups that you can give permission to use the share. Select the Guest account and click "OK". When back in the previous window, click "OK" again.

Step 7: when back in the "Permissions for ..." window, select the Guest account and make sure "Read" is allowed. Click "OK". When back in the "Advanced Sharing" window, click "OK" again.

Now, according to the NMTWiki tutorial this should be it, however, it’s not. This won’t work yet, as there is still a security issue that can be easily overlooked. There is hardly any information on it since you don’t really get a clue to look in this direction, thinking you already set up a share with the proper user and rights. To save you hours of searching, here’s the answer:

Step 8: while still in the "Properties" window of the drive you want to share, select the "Security" tab. Scroll down the list of users to find the Guest account you just added in step 6. Can't find it? Right, you've just stumbled upon the reason why it refuses to work! Click "Edit...".

Step 9: in the "Permissions for" window, add the Guest user in the same way you did earlier (steps 4-6). After having done that, select it and make sure "Read & execute", "List folder contents" and "Read" are allowed. Click "OK" and "OK" again in the "Properties" window. This may take a minute, depending on your hardware configuration and the number of files there are on the selected drive.

That’s it! All works perfectly fine now, try it! Enjoy all media from your entire drive, conveniently shown in one view on your HDX 1000. I haven’t tested it, but this is likely to work in the Popcorn Hour machines as well. Happy viewing!