What's the purpose of Workgroups in Windows 7?

[pinoy]

I have two computers using Windows 7. I have purposely set each computer with different Workgroup names. Why is it that either computers is still able to access shared files from the other?

[Joshua_Mahr]

Homegroup maybe?

[werty316]

Workgroup? Are you sure you dodn't mean Homegroup as asked above?

To put it in simplest form a Homegroup is a collection of computers centralized on a local LAN that share common resources within the LAN.

[PP Mguire]

Windows 7 still has Workgroups. On the network you have sub-groups that you can assign computers to for specific reasoning's. For instance if a workplace has several pre-built office machines with similar IDs the admin can assign workgroups to each one so they are easily recognizable over the network. For instance, Workgroup "Front_Desk", then "Render_Stations", ect.
In old days separate workgroups can't share information between each other but these days the permissions have to be set. With the addition to the Homegroup system most Workgroups are bypassed and can share information between each other depending on how the profile is set in networking and what permissions are set. To me it seems almost pointless but I suppose either can make a certain admins life easy when trying to identify over the network like I previously demonstrated.

[ryandigweed]

I think we should have a noobs guide to networking out here. I find sharing files in windows 7 highly annoying

[PP Mguire]

I think we should have a noobs guide to networking out here. I find sharing files in windows 7 highly annoying

It's as simple as setting your network to "Home" then making sure the advanced sharing properties are set right.

[werty316]

Sharing files on Windows 7 is a sinch.

[najiro]

No idea about this as well O_O
Never really looked into it.. might give me a headache LOL. I'll just use a flashdisk for transferring data

[werty316]

The easiest way to share files is to right click a folder and choose "Specific people...".

[pinoy]

Neither computers is part of a Homegroup. I just noticed this sharing anomaly so I thought I would ask.

[ryandigweed]

Iduno guys I've always had a problem crating the workgroup. And adding users. And then came the read and write problems that it wouldn't allow me to read or write. It wasn't so well setup. And I couldn't switch to Linux because I needed windows as my base OS. So I got a NAS. And setting up the nas was way easier and much faster!

[PP Mguire]

If you are using Windows 7 you don't even need to deal with workgroups. You need to simply learn how to setup advanced sharing properties under the Home option. It's flawless after you learn that.

[TehYoyo]

To be honest, I don't find homegroups useful b/c I never share files with others. Maybe an occasional file that I've scanned for someone, but nothing more than that. If anything, it's a few-GB music collection that I'd want to put on a flash drive (for speed) anyways.

[PP Mguire]

I never use homegroups either. I actually disable the services.

[altereDad]

There are differences between these... here's a bit more info...

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-CA/windows7/What-is-the-difference-between-a-domain-a-workgroup-and-a-homegroup