How to get domain users without administrative privillate to access domain folders

Have you added the new Win7 computers to the workgroup / domain ???

Are the network folders hidden shares as in sharename$? The dollar sign would hide these shares. Have you configured the share and ntfs permissions for the folders so they can have access?

Question: Is this a LAN connection or a connection through a VPN or other remote means of connecting?

Question:  Can your users browse to this server using the UNC conventions from the search box or windows explorer to see the shared resources?  (\\servername)

Question:  Are there any mapped drives accessible and do they show up with any information?

The computers are all connected to the domain.  The folders all have permissions for the students to use.  We are connected through a LAN

Are the folders hidden shares?

Open My Computer and then click on the Organize Tab > and Select on the Folder and Search Options > then click on the View Tab and make sure Show Hidden Files , Folders and Drives is selected and apply this and then click ok.

Question:  Can your users browse to this server using the UNC conventions from the search box or windows explorer to see the shared resources?  (\\servername)

I can browse to the folder with administrative privilleges but the students cannot.  When I search for the server in the network  using a student login it cannot even find the server.  When use the UNC convention with a student login it does not find the server either. The showing hidden folders solultion doesn't work and even if it did I would not would students to see the hiddent folders and system folders. The computers running XP can all open the folders and work with them so the permissions have to OK at the server level.  The computers are seeing the server when they log on because it is he server that holds their computer names and passwords not the local computer.

Are the students using Guest Accounts or Domain User Accounts? And are the students members of the Domain User's Group?

The students have domain Accouts.  The students are members of the student Group in the domain. They log in as domain users and not as local machine users.

Have you checked that all the services are starting. If you go to Start Search and type services.msc and check the list of services for networking.

DNS - make sure that the Windows computers are using the domain controller as the first and only DNS server on your computer (unless you have a backup DC)

All network serevices are runing and there is only 1 domain server.

I found this note in my Windows 7 Resource Kit Book.  (Microsoft Press)  "Windows Vista and Windows 7 include an LLTD responder that you can add to Windows XP, read Microsoft Knowledge Base article 992120 at http://support.microsft.com/kb/922120.  This will enable computers running Windows XP to appear on the Network Maps in Windows 7, but they still cannot generate the maps."  I am going to try to have my network server technician try this on our Windows Server 2003 machine and see if it solves the problem.  Sounds promising in theory.

The above solution worked. When the hotfix was applied to the server the workstations were able to see it in when network was clicked in the left pane and network discovery was turned on.  One proviso is that if network discovery didn't find it the first time around you have to click on the refresh double arrow and on the refresh it find it.  Also when I put the hofix on one of the XP workstations it was found also.

When I checked with my server technician he said that he didn't apply the hotfix on the Server 2003.  The solution all the time was a siimple one.  Network discovery doesn't find the server on the first pass.  Click the double arrow refresh icon and it finds it on the second pass.  However the hot fix does work when applied to an XP machine.  When I applied the hotfix to one of my XP machines I also was able to see it in the network domain group  along with the windows 7 machines.