How To Share Recorded TV with other Media Centers

This setup is for Media Centers that are not part of a Windows domain.  Now that Vista allows Media Center machines to act as part of a domain it's a little simpler process.  I'll write another entry later on how to set that up.

The first step is to turn off the sharing wizard (simple file sharing in XP) do this on the Media Center that is doing the recording.

• Open Control Panel
• Open folder options
• Click on the view tab
• Scroll all the way to the bottom
• Uncheck "Use Sharing Wizard"

Next is to share the Recorded TV folder on your Media Center that is doing the recording.

• Navigate to your Recorded TV folder
• Right click on it and choose properties
• Click the sharing tab
• Click on Advanced Sharing
• Check "Share this folder"
• Click the permissions button
• Click add
• Type anonymous in the box and click ok. If you want the remote computer to be able to delete TV shows click the change box, otherwise leave it at the default of Read (see figure below).

• Click OK twice
• Go to the security tab
• Click the edit button
• Click add
• Type anonymous in the box and click OK. If you want the remote computer to be able to delete TV click the modify box, otherwise leave it at the default (see figure below).

• Click OK then close

The next step is to edit the local computer policy to allow anonymous access to the share we just created.

• Click Start and then type gpedit.msc in the search box and hit enter.
• Expand Computer Configuration
• Expand Windows Settings
• Expand Security Settings
• Expand Local Policies
• Click on Security Options
• Double click on "Network access: Shares that can be accessed anonymously"
• Type Recorded TV
• Click OK

• Double click on "Network access: Do not allow anonymous enumeration of SAM accounts and shares" and ensure it is set to disabled.
• Close the local computer policy
• Reboot

Now to tell the other Media Centers to look at this share for Recorded TV you'll need to edit the registry.

• Click Start and type regedit.exe into the search box and hit enter.
• Expand HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
• Expand SOFTWARE
• Expand Microsoft
• Expand Windows
• Expand Current Version
• Expand Media Center
• Expand Service
• Click on Recording
• Create a new Multi-String Value by right clicking in the right pane and going to New.
• Name the new value "WatchedFolders" (without the quotes).
• Double click on WatchedFolders and enter the path to the share on the remote Media Center machine, ex. \\computername\Recorded TV

• Click Ok and close the registry editor.
• Reboot
• Open Media Center and go to Recorded TV, you should now see all the recorded TV on the remote Media Center.