The "homegroup" feature is useless, because it requires a password, and therefore doesn't support anonymous, no-hassle access to shares from devices such as my Sony Bravia TV and non-Windows7 machines. So I turned off homegroup and reverted to the standard shared folders protocol.

I'd like to share my Music "Library", so I can play files from my TV through the Surround Sound System, but there seems to be no option to share a library folder other than through a homegroup.

I don't want to have to individually share the folders that belong to the library, because that would defeat the purposes of the library, which is to manage which folders are included in the library while also providing an easily accessible view of them all at once.

Does anyone know how to share a Windows 7 library without that useless homegroup feature?