Why I can't communicate with devices when directly connected with an ethernet cable?

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Hello,

I have a new work computer with Windows 7. My old laptop had Windows XP, and I could communicate with any devices through an ethernet cable after I assign the devices and my laptop with ip addresses with the same subnet. However, I found I can't do the same with Windows 7. The static IP addresses of the devices and my laptop are within the same subnet. I've tried using a crossover cable and updating my network driver but that didn't work. When my laptop is connected to the device, Windows 7 would try to identify the network and state that the network is an unidentified public network with no network access. I found that I could communicate with devices when I go through a switch. This is really strange. Does anyone know what is going on? Thanks.