Howdy all, I don't own the Esteem YET... but since I'm planning on owning one I was cruisin this part of the forums doing some reading and found this post. Thought I'd chime in and say that on my Optimus M I CAN browse the root directory and any/all subdirectories over FTP from my laptop, assuming both devices are on the same network/subnet. The FTP server I'm running on the phone itself is called SwiFTP which is free on Market, and works perfectly. I am NOT running windows on my computer (I run Linux) but I don't see why any FTP program for windows wouldn't work... give it a try.
EDIT: just to be clear for anyone who may be kinda new to this yet, by being on the same network I did mean by using the wireless interface. Computer and phone both connected to my router via "wi-fi"but of course if your computer is hard-cabled into your router/switch/whatever you got, then that will work too as long as the devices can "see" each other.