How To Share Printer Scanner On Network Windows 7

Over the years, Windows has gotten much meliorate about how it handles networked printers. But if you desire to share a printer over the network, you may nonetheless need to practice a niggling legwork to become it all upward and running. Here'southward how it all works.

Setting up a printer on your network involves two steps. The beginning step is getting the printer connected to the network, and at that place are three ways yous can do that:

Connect the printer to the network directly. This is the easiest mode to set up a network printer. Information technology doesn't require that another PC be turned on to print (like the below methods exercise), and y'all don't have to go through the hassle of setting upwardly sharing. And, since most printers made within the last few years have networking congenital in, there's a good chance your printer supports this selection.
Connect the printer to 1 of your PCs and share it with the network over Homegroup. If connecting a printer directly to the network isn't an choice, you tin connect it to a PC on the network and share it with Windows Homegroup. Information technology's piece of cake to set up, and is optimal for networks that are made upwardly of generally Windows computers. This method, however, requires that the computer its connected to exist up and running in order for yous to apply the printer.
Connect the printer to one of your PCs and share it without Homegroup. This is ideal if your network has other computers running different operating systems, if you want more than control over file and printer sharing, or if Homegroup but isn't working very well. Similar the Homegroup method, this requires that the reckoner its connected to be up and running in club for you lot to utilise the printer.

The 2nd step, once y'all've hooked upwardly your printer, will be connecting other PCs to the network printer…which depends a lot on how yous hooked information technology up. Confused all the same? Don't worry. We're virtually to get over all of this.

Update: Microsoft removed the HomeGroup feature from Windows ten in the April 2018 update. Yous can still use HomeGroups if you're using Windows 7 or 8, simply they won't be accessible by computers running Windows x (at least with the latest updates) unless you too fix upward traditional file sharing.

Pace One: Connect Your Printer to the Network

First, allow'south talk nigh getting that printer connected to your network. Equally we mentioned higher up, you have iii options here. Y'all tin can connect it direct to the network, yous tin can connect information technology to a PC and share it through a Homegroup, or you can connect information technology to a PC and share it without using Homegroup.

Connect Your Printer Directly to the Network

Most printers these days accept networking congenital in. Some come up equipped with Wi-Fi, some with Ethernet, and many accept both options available. Unfortunately, we can't requite you precise instructions for getting this done, since how you do it depends on the type of printer you accept. If your printer has an LCD brandish, chances are y'all can notice the network settings somewhere in the Settings or Tools portion of the menus. If your printer has no display, you lot'll probably have to rely on some series of physical button presses to tell it whether it should utilize its Wi-Fi or Ethernet network adapter. Some printers even take a dedicated easy connect button that tin can ready the Wi-Fi for you.

If you're having problem setting up a printer that connects direct to the network, the manufacturer should have instructions for making information technology happen. Check the transmission that came with your printer or the manufacturer's web site for information on hooking it up.

Share a Printer Connected to a PC past Using a Homegroup

Sharing a printer with Homegroup is super like shooting fish in a barrel. Showtime, of grade, you lot'll want to make sure that the printer is connected to one of the PCs on the network and set up up properly. If that PC can print to the printer, and so yous're good to go.

Kickoff by firing upward the Homegroup control console app. Click Start, blazon "homegroup," so click the selection or hit Enter.

What yous do adjacent depends on what you run across in the Homegroup window. If the PC you have the printer connected to is already role of a Homegroup, y'all'll meet something like the following screen. If it shows that you're already sharing printers, then you're done. You can skip on to step two, where you connect other PCs on the network. If you're not already sharing printers, click the "Change what you're sharing with the homegroup" link.

On the "Printers & Devices" drop-downwards menu, cull the "Shared" option. Click Next and and then y'all can close the Homegroup options and movement on to step two.

If there is already a Homegroup created for other PCs on the network, but the PC you've got your printer connected to isn't a member, the chief screen when yous starting time the Homegroup control panel app volition await something similar the 1 beneath. Click the "Join now" button and then click "Side by side" on the following screen that just tells you a bit about Homegroups.

Set up your sharing options, making sure that "Printers and devices" is set to "Shared," and and so click "Next."

Type the countersign for the Homegroup and then click "Adjacent." If y'all don't know the password, go to one of the other PCs on the network that is already a fellow member of the Homegroup, launch the Homegroup control console app, and you tin can wait information technology up in that location.

If you're connecting from another PC that you've signed onto using the same Microsoft business relationship as the PC that's already a member of the Homegroup, Windows 8 and 10 won't enquire for your password. Instead, Windows will authorize you automatically.

On the concluding screen, click the "End" push button and then you can motion on to stride two and get your other PCs on the network connected to the printer.

And finally, if in that location is no Homegroup at all on your network, you'll see something like the following screen when you lot open up the Homegroup control panel window. To create a new homegroup, click the "Create a homegroup" button.

The post-obit screen just tells you a little most Homegroups. Become ahead and click "Next."

Cull any libraries and folders yous desire to share with the network from the PC you lot're on. Simply make certain that you select the "Shared" option for "Printers & Devices." Click "Adjacent" when you're done making your selections.

The final screen shows the password yous'll demand for other PCs on your network to connect to the Homegroup. Write information technology downwardly and then click the "Finish" button.

Now that you've got your Homegroup set upward and your PC is sharing its printers with it, you tin skip down to step ii and get those other PCs on the network connected to the printer.

Share a Printer Continued to a PC Without Using a Homegroup

If y'all have computers or mobile devices on your network that run an Os other than Windows vii, 8, or 10–or yous just don't desire to use Homegroup for some reason–you can ever use the sharing tools that accept ever been a part of Windows to share a printer with the network. Again, your first pace is making certain the printer is connected to a PC and that yous can print to it.

Click Start, type "devices and printers," and then hitting Enter or click the result.

Right-click the printer you desire to share with the network and and then select "Printer properties".

The "Printer Properties" window shows you all kinds of things you can configure near the printer. For now, click the "Sharing" tab.

RELATED: Customizing Your Network Sharing Settings

You lot are informed that the printer volition non be available when your computer sleeps or it is close downward. Besides, if you are using password protected sharing, you are informed that only users on your network with a username and password for this computer tin impress to it. Credentials are a erstwhile thing y'all'll have to enter the first time yous connect some other PC to the shared printer; you lot won't accept to practise information technology each fourth dimension you print. If you'd prefer, you lot can make sharing available to guests so that passwords aren't necessary, but that setting will also employ to any files you accept shared. We advise you lot read up on customizing your network sharing settings before making that decision.

To proceed, enable the "Share this printer" option and, if you lot want, give the printer a friendlier name so that others on the network can more easily identify the printer.

The other option you lot can set here is whether yous would like to render print jobs on client computers. If this setting is enabled, all the documents that will be printed are rendered on the computers where people are doing the printing. When this setting is disabled, the documents are rendered on the computer to which the printer is attached. If information technology's a PC that someone uses actively, we recommend enabling this setting so that system operation is not impacted every time something gets printed.

When yous're done setting things up, go ahead and click "OK."

Now that you've shared the printer, other PCs on your network should exist able to connect to information technology. So, you're set up to motility on to step two.

Stride 2: Connect to Your Printer from Any PC on the Network

Now that you've got your printer connected to the network using ane of the in a higher place methods, information technology'southward time to turn your attention to the 2d function of the process: connecting other PCs on the network to that printer. How you practice that actually simply depends on whether y'all're using Homegroup or not.

Connect to a Printer That's Shared by a PC Using a Homegroup

This is probably the easiest footstep in this whole tutorial. If you've got the printer continued to a PC and that PC is sharing the printer as function of a Homegroup, all you have to practise is make sure that other PCs on the network are also joined to the Homegroup. You tin can use the same process nosotros went over in Step One to get them joined. When PCs are part of the aforementioned Homegroup, Windows volition automatically connect to any printers shared from other PCs. They'll just bear witness up in your Devices and Printers window automatically and any PC in the Homegroup can impress to them. Super simple.

Connect to a Printer Without Using Homegroup

If your printer is connected directly to a network, or is shared from a PC without using Homegroup, you'll accept to exercise a niggling more work to connect to information technology from other PCs on the network. It's still pretty straightforward, though. Click Start, type "devices and printers," and then hit Enter or click the upshot.

The Devices and Printers window shows a collection of devices on your PC. Click the "Add together a printer" link to get started adding your network printer.

Windows will perform a quick scan of your network for discoverable devices that are not still installed on your PC and display them in the "Add together a device" window. Chances are loftier that yous'll run across your printer on the listing, whether it's directly continued to the network or shared from some other PC. If you lot see the printer you lot're looking for, then your chore only got super like shooting fish in a barrel. Click the printer you lot want to install. Windows will handle the installation, download drivers if needed, and ask yous to provide a proper noun for the printer. That's all you accept to do.

If you lot don't run across the printer y'all want to install–and you're sure you lot've got it properly connected to the network–click the "The printer that I desire isn't listed" link. The next window will present yous with several options for helping you observe it:

My printer is a little older. If you select this option, Windows volition perform a more thorough browse of your network looking for the printer. In our feel, though, it rarely finds anything that it didn't already notice during its initial scan. It'southward an easy enough option to attempt, but it may take a few minutes.
Select a shared printer past name. If the network computer is shared from another PC, this is the all-time selection for finding it. If you know the exact network name of the estimator and printer, you tin can type it here. Or you tin can click the "Browse" push button to look through the PCs on your network that accept sharing enabled and meet if y'all tin find the printer that way.
Add a printer using a TCP/IP address or hostname. If your printer is attached straight to the network and y'all know its IP address, this is probably the simplest and surest selection. Well-nigh network printers accept a office that lets you determine their IP address. If your printer has an LCD display, you lot may exist able to detect the IP address by scrolling through the printer settings. For printers without a display, you can usually perform some sequence of button presses that will print the settings for yous. If all else fails, you lot tin can always use an IP scanning app like Wireless Network Watcher to locate devices on your network. Check out the last section of this guide for more information on how to exercise that.
Add a Bluetooth, wireless, or network discoverable printer. If you choose this option, Windows volition browse for those types of devices. Once again, nosotros've rarely seen it choice up a device that it didn't discover during the initial scan. Just, information technology still may be worth a try.
Add together a local printer or network printer with manual settings. This option may assist you become a printer added if null else works. It's more often than not for configuring a local printer by specifying exact port information, merely in that location is 1 setting in particular that can help with network printers if y'all know the model. When asked to specify a port, you can choose a Windows Self Discovery option, which is listed toward the bottom of the available ports as "WSD" followed past a string of numbers and letters. When you choose that, Windows will ask you to specify a model so that it tin install drivers. When you're done, Windows will then monitor the network for that printer. It'due south a longshot, but it'due south worth a try if all else fails.

You'll find all these options are pretty straightforward and feature brusque wizards for walking you through the process. Since TCP/IP is the surest way to get a printer added, we're going to continue with that as our example. Select "Add a printer using a TCP/IP address or hostname" and and then click "Next."

Type the IP address for the printer into the "Hostname or IP address" box. Make certain the "Query the printer and automatically select the commuter to use" check box is selected and then click "Adjacent."

Type a new proper name for printer if the default name doesn't adjust you and then click "Next."

Choose whether to set the new printer as the default, impress a examination folio if you desire to make sure everything's working, and then click "Finish" when yous're done.

Hopefully, y'all never need to bother with most of this stuff. If your network printer is properly connected to the network, the chances are high that Windows volition pick it upwards and install information technology for you correct off the bat. And if your network is by and large Windows machines and you use Homegroup for sharing files and printers, things should also happen mostly automatically. If information technology doesn't–or if you take a more than complicated setup–at least you know you lot take some options.

Source: https://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-7/share-files-and-printers-in-windows-7-with-homegroup/

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