File Sharing Between Windows and Mac

First off... I would recommend following my other tutorial to prepare you Windows machine for file sharing before following this one for your Mac.

Letting Your Mac Be Able to See Shared Files on Windows 7 / Windows XP and Your Windows Computers See Mac Files: (Using Snow Leopard for this Tutorial, but I think most Mac's are similar)

1. Follow the steps above to get your Windows machines ready to share files
2. On your Mac, Click 'System Preferences'
3. Then Click 'Sharing'
4. NOTE: Note your Mac's 'Computer Name' so you know what to look for later on in the tutorial when you are looking for it from your Windows Machine
5. Choose which service you would like to share on the left-hand side (in our case, File Sharing if everything is grayed out, you will have to click the lock in the lower right to make changes, the admin password is needed to do this)
6. In the middle column, you can choose which folders to share and can add or remove them from here as well
7. Be default it should have (User Name)'s Public Folder in the column
8. Once you click on the Public Folder, in the far right hand column it shows who has access to it and what access they have
9. To simplify things for this tutorial, click Everyone and change their permissions to Read and Write. (If 'Everyone' is not listed in your version, click the '+' button and add 'Everyone'
10. Ok, halfway there!
11. Click 'Back' to get back to the System Preferences
12. Now click the 'Network' Preference
13. When it comes up, on the lower right, click 'Advanced...'
14. In this new screen, click the 'WINS' tab at the top
15. Now, in order for your Windows to see the Mac's shared files, the Workgroup under the WINS tab HAS to be the same as the Workgroup your other Windows machines are on. By default most Windows machines, from my experience, are in the Workgroup titled “WORKGROUP” or “MSHOME”
16. Once the Workgroup has been entered, click ok
17. Then click Apply
18. And you should be good to go! No reboot needed on the Mac, to see the computers and files, open up Finder. and by default on the left sidebar, click 'Shared' and then 'All...' and then find your Workgroup you entered in step 15 above and you will be able to see the Windows computers.
19. Now get on your Windows machine and make sure you can see your Mac shared files and you are all setup!