If you’re wishing to access a Mac file share from a Windows machine, there’s one thing needed that’s often overlooked.

First, assume you’re just needing to have Windows machines access a file share presented from the Mac.

Creating the share — you can use any folder you wish, or even a drive. I’ll just use an existing folder to share with a Windows machine — and because I lack the “creative naming” gene, I’ll just call it WinBackups and put it on one of my Data drives.

Next, we’ll go to Sharing in System Preferences to add it as a File Sharing object. Here, you can see that I have one for Backups, a default public Drop Box for my own account, and the new…

I’ve set it to No Access for everyone, and because I’m going to use my own account, added it for Read & Write access.

Next, ensure it’s presented as a Windows share. Right-click the share name then click Advanced Options. Because I need to exist in a platform-agnostic world, ensure Share over is SMB and AFP. Everything else can be left unchecked.

Click OK.

And try from Windows…

That’s annoying.

But not to worry!

There’s another step — strangely — because some Windows computers handle the password exchange differently. So, in a way, Mac passwords and password handling is too secure (?), or something.

In System Preferences, go to Sharing > File Sharing > select the specific share point, then click Options.

Enable the checkbox to Share files and folders using SMB. Next, check off each username from the list presented. You’ll need to type each user’s password when prompted.

Click Done.

And, viewing it from DOS, because why not:

C:\Users\esthe>net view
Server Name            Remark

\\JOHNS-IMAC           John's iMac
\\LAPTOP-LGEG7HJC
The command completed successfully.

C:\Users\esthe>net view \\johns-imac
Shared resources at \\johns-imac

Share name                    Type  Used as  Comment

Backups                       Disk
John Shirley's Public Folder  Disk
WinBackups                    Disk
The command completed successfully.

C:\Users\esthe>net use u: \johns-imac\winbackups
The command completed successfully.

C:\Users\esthe>dir u:
 Volume in drive U is Data
 Volume Serial Number is 0000-0000

 Directory of U:\

03/07/2020  03:02 PM    <DIR>            .
03/07/2020  03:02 PM    <DIR>            ..
02/24/2020  07:36 PM     1,646,760,758 Microsoft_Office_16.34.20020900_BusinessPro_Installer.pkg
03/07/2020  03:01 PM    <DIR>            SCC
03/07/2020  03:02 PM    <DIR>            SFCC
               1 File(s) 1,646,760,758 bytes
               4 Dir(s) 1,637,838,020,608 bytes free

C:\Users\esthe>shutdown /s /f /t 0

⌨️