How to get Windows XP clients to work with Windows 8/2012r2 server

Windows XP clients will generate "The specified network name is no longer available" errors when attempting to connect to Windows 8 or Windows 2012r2 file shares, even after you install the SMB 1.0 feature, and the solution isn't obvious. I'm pretty sure this is a bug in windows and I can't believe it's not already fixed by now (June 2014). This is exactly why I never want to be an early adopter of new versions of windows, or any big important software for that matter.

This is a registry patch I created to fix it.
(download)

Apply it on the server, not the clients. Then restart the Server (Lanmanserver) service, or just restart windows.

If you are still having problems, make sure you have the "SMB 1.0" feature installed. (click START, type FEATURE, click TURN WINDOWS FEATURES ON OR OFF, and you will see it in that list.

If you want to know how this registry patch works, read this article.

enjoy