andy vt's tools & blog

So does this work on WHS to properly set permissions for a WHS-hosted Recorded TV folder??

Thanks, Rick

it doesn't set permissions on anything, it lets network service (the account that the MC services run under) map network drives by executing net use with the arguments you provide.

if the account and path are valid, it will work on any folder that can be accessed via an UNC. 

I have 2 media centers (1 Vista Home Premium and 1 XP MCE) that share recordings.  I set it up using a guide on The Green Button.  My XP machine works great.  On the Vista machine, the programs would show up in "recorded tv" but wouldn't play.  Also, if I would try to open the folder through My Network Places, it would ask me for a password even though it's supposed to allow anonymous logons, and I in fact can anonymously open it from another computer.  I can type anything I want in the user field and leave the password field blank, then it will open, and the videos will play in Media Center, until I reboot, at which time I'd have to do it again.  I had been without a solution till I found UseShare.  First I tried using "Net Use" to make sure my syntax was correct.  It worked!  But when I edited the XML file and put it in there just like I had used "Net Use", then rebooted, it doesn't work.   The service is started and also shows up in task manager.  But I still need to enter login information to access the share.  I was thinking that an easy solution would be to put a "net use" command in the startup.  I guess I was curious to know why you have this program running as a service instead of something that just runs when the machine starts up.  Also, any suggestions as to what I could try in order to make it work?  I really appreciate all that you do to help us Media Center users.  Thanks!

the easiest thing would be to use the same user name /pwd combo on the two pcs.  otherwise, creating matching accounts on both pcs will work too. 

if you'd rather not do that, you can use net use to store credentials for the account (this is what use share does for network service).  a cmd file in your startup folder is the easiest way to do that. 

use share executes net use in the the context of network service (the account the MC services use) so it must run as a service.   

For whatever reason, it works great for me to run the batch file to execute a net use command at startup, but the useshare service doesn't work, though it appears like it's running fine.  I'm happy - my problem is solved (I never would have thought of using "net use" without coming across your program).  I've done enough other things to try to get it to work that I may have messed something up which makes useshare not work the usual way.  Anyway, thanks for your help.

 that's odd... c'est la vie :)