Comments on: Use the Homegroup Feature in Windows 7 to Share Printers and Files

By: Daniel Brockman

Daniel Brockman — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 22:16:28 +0000

When, after several hours of screwing around, I finally figured out how to disable the security on Public and “Home and Work” (whatever that is), I was able to share the printer to both my XP and Vista machines. Microsoft must think its customers worth 25 cents an hour. The homegroup idea is poorly implemented in Windows 7. I don’t understand how or why one would want to use it.

By: Ben

Ben — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 03:00:29 +0000

Gee, tell us something that’s NOT in the help files…
How about when you get a message about ‘this computer cannot join a homegroup’ along with something about the time not synchronized, when it IS.

The troubleshooters in Win 7 are NOT any better than they were way back in Win 98 — basics only!!!

By: GoodBytes

GoodBytes — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 22:51:43 +0000

Thanks Camron, so it seams that the only setup I can have is anyone who connects to my network, or be account based like I have, where the system that has folder/device shared needs to have the other computer account and password.

By: camron9989

camron9989 — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 21:29:22 +0000

My previous comment was a reply to GoodBytes.

You can also do this:
On my computer, I have created a separate partition for sharing files. I simply right clicked on the new drive and clicked share. On the other computers I used “map network drive”‘ to make the host folder appear as a new drive.

By: camron9989

camron9989 — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 21:25:20 +0000

Network and Sharing Center > Turn on: Network discovery, File sharing,Printer sharing. To share a folder, right click on the folder on the host computer and click “Share” > Select which PCs you wish to share with (note: you can only use this method to share folders with other computers on the same network; everybody = anybody on the network).

Printing from the 2nd computer (This will only work if both computers are on and connected to the network): on the 2nd computer: Network and Sharing Center > View Computers and Devices > double click on the printer and it will automatically be installed.

(You may need to do this on the 2nd computer: Network and Sharing Center > Turn on: Network discovery, File sharing,Printer sharing. )

The shared folder can be accessed from the 2nd computer by: Network and Sharing Center > View Computers and Devices > navigate to host computer > locate shared folder.

By: GoodBytes

GoodBytes — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 18:42:07 +0000

A little off topic, but this is something I want to know.
I have 2 system running Vista, and I want computer2 to access files and printer form computer1. Now, that works fine here. My problem, is to make this possible, I had to create an account on computer1 with the same user name and password, so that the the folders and devices I want to share doesn’t need a user name and password. In result in computer1 I have 2 accounts where one is just there annoying me at the login screen, and just not used. Is there another way to do what I want to do without the need to create and account on computer1?

Thanks in advance!