Make Windows XP show up on your Vista Network Map

Just saw the following over on the Computerworld article:

Teach XP and Vista to play nice on networks

And the Windows Vista Network Map -- which may be the best networking feature Microsoft has ever introduced into Windows -- won't work properly with XP PCs. They won't show up properly on the network map, if they even show up at all.

The fine folks at Computerworld are not quite right... Windows XP computers WILL show up on the network (once you install the software that allows them to do so). *Update... I didn't see that there were 3 pages in the Computerworld story. They do cover the steps below. My bad...

Courtesy of this TechNet Article:

Network Map in Microsoft® Windows Vista™ diagrams the connections between network devices to help you troubleshoot connectivity problems. Network Map uses a discovery protocol called Link-Layer Topology Discovery (LLTD) in order to query the other devices on the network to determine how the network is organized. Computers running Windows Vista include the software components that implement the LLTD protocol. For other devices on the network to be placed on the map, they must have a discovery protocol enabled that can respond to the mapping computer's requests.

Solution

For computers running Windows XP to appear on the Network Map diagram, you must download and install the LLTD Responder component. With the LLTD Responder, a computer running Windows XP can respond to other Windows Vista computers on the network that are attempting to create a network map.

To install the LLTD Responder to a computer running Windows XP

  1. Download the update for Windows XP from https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=70582
  2. Run the update on the computer running Windows XP that you want to appear on the Network Map.
  3. On the Software Update Installation Wizard, click Next.
  4. On the License Agreement page, read the license agreement, and if you agree to the terms, click I Agree, and then click Next.
  5. On the final page of the wizard, click Finish.
  6. If you are prompted to do so, restart your computer.
  7. After your computer running Windows XP restarts, generate a new Network Map with the computer running Windows XP included.

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