It took me some time to find out how to do this. I wanted to achieve the following (on all domain computers):

If you did not notice, the network logo/icon and the active network name is custom.

It can be done via Group Policy – Computer Configuration\Policies\Windows Settings\Security Settings\Network List Manager Policies. In my case I’ve edited the default domain policy so it will apply to all domain computers. Pictures are self explanatory.

Of course you will need Windows 7 or Vista on the enduser workstations.

Ever happened to get this error message when running Windows 7 or Vista + a wireless network and a VMWare product (like Player or Workstation)? I’ve run into this error message “This connection requires an active Internet connection” many times when trying to connect via the Connect To menu.

The classic resolution is to initiate the VPN from the Network Connections window, not from the Connect To.

The other solution found on the internet is to change the network binding order and to hope this will never happen.

But I’ve found another temporary solution. Restarting the WLAN Auto Config service (wlan connection will drop for a couple of seconds) will fix this issue without a system reboot.

I still hope for a MS update to fix this.

The Homegroup is probably one of the most useful feature of Windows 7 and home users will love it. After years when sharing was a mess they finally did something to improve peer network sharing.

That’s how the homegroup was born, a sharing model where you don’t need a user/pass to access shared resources, but only a password to join to that homegroup. The members of the homegroup can share files without any authentication.

Below I will show you how to set a homegroup and how to share some files inside the homegroup.

We start by setting up the homegroup from the Network and Sharing Center.

I don’t like Windows to choose what to share for me, so I will not share anything for now.

You will need the password below to join this homegroup from other computers. The password can be seen later or even changed in case the homegroup security is compromised.

Now that we’ve set the homegroup, we go to the second computer and we’ll try to join it to the homegroup. We do that from Network and Sharing Center.

And that’s all.

Here is how we share something inside a homegroup: Iata si cum partajam informatia in cadrul unui homegroup:

If the folder was shared successfully then will see this status in Explorer window.

From the other computer we can access the workgroup from the left homegroup option in windows Explorer.

In the list of homegroup computers we’ll see only the computers that have something shared. If they are only joined and nothing shared it will not appear in the list.

I will continue in another post with some other details about this feature. Stay tuned!