Noob advice on connecting two PC via RJ45 crossover ?

[Defenestration]

I currently have a laptop, and am in the process of speccing/building a new desktop. I want to be able to connect the two PC's together will eventually setup a proper network (with router), but was considering a simple RJ45 crossover cable initially. However, I have never done any kind of netwrokign before and have a few questions:

1) If both PC's are booted into Windows and I connect a crossover cable between them, what happens ?
2) When connected by crossover, can each PC see the others resources (eg. HD's, OD's etc. ? - What resources can't be seen ?)

 

[Defenestration]

Thanks for the info. I'll give it a go and post back here once I have my new setup and have given it a go.