Would be nice if the author could explain at the end of the article what the word “render” actually means. The instructions as written don’t give me enough information to understand whether or not to check the box.
this helped a lot, but whenever the pc where the printer is connected restarts, all the other pc on the network cant connect again to the printer, thus, i have to remove the printer from the devices and printers again and reinstall it. so goes to the other pcs on the network. Is there a way so that it would be permanent? ii already tried using static ip. still the same.
We can all connect to our Network printer, but only one PC can print with the correct settings 🙁 As we use listing paper for our 5-part invoices, we’ve checked everything in the settings, but none of the other networks print so the paper lines up. Very annoying!
my Windows 7 Pro PC (printer is attached to this PC) and my Windows XP home PC,, tried to add a printer on the XP machine after installing the printer drivers on it, and it cannot find the printer on the network. Didn’t work for me.
Happy to help. If you find our content useful, don’t hesitate to subscribe. We even have a weekly newsletter that sends only 1 email/week with a summary of what we published that week. You might enjoy it. 😉
If you are in a work enviroment you have to have a passowrd for every user ( i dont know how that works) but you can deactivate that in the shared use options under “shared use advanced settings” : loo for “password protection” and deactivate it.
This is a problem with Windows 7. The only “easy” way to share a printer with Windows 7 is to set up a homegroup. Unfortunately, that doesn’t help in a work environment because the only way to join a homegroup is to change your network settings to a “home” environment. Sharing printers from Windows 7 is, and always will be, problematic. Best solution? Network your printer(s). If your printer is not ethernet ready, buy a print server. Shame on Microsoft because not only are they aware of the problem, they continue to furnish instructions for sharing that simply won’t work. Fix the problem or tell everyone that you won’t.
Windows 7 seems to be very paranoiac in terms to share something with others.
I did everything exactly as stated above on my Windows 7 Pro laptop (printer is attached to this laptop). Tried to add a printer on the XP machine after installing the printer drivers on it, and it cannot find the printer on the network. Didn’t work for me.
At home I bought the additional printer for XP machine – today simple laser printers does not cost much – less, then to hassle around with this problem.
At one workplace printer is shared in XP network with user names but no password to log on.
For Win 7 machine this is insurmountable problem!!! So they bought another printer for me – easier to do, no need to change the whole network.
for those having problems setting the printer to share: microsoft notes that windows firewall being disabled in services is the problem. even if turned off the firewall must be set to automatic in services, and started
I have three computers networked. They are Win7 64 bit, Win7 32 bit, and XP-Pro 32 bit.
I have all the printer drivers set to full share.
I found that there are no problems to share the printers between the two 32 bit systems. The Win7 64 bit computer seems to not be able to share the printers residing on the XP-Pro 32 bit computer.
You cannot share a printer residing on another computer. You can just connect to it and use it. However, you will need to install 64-bit drivers for your printer on the 64-bit system.
I did everything as described, it found the printer shared everything shows and it installed the printer. When I go to print a test page, it shows it prints it in the que on both computers, but the file just hangs there and does not print. Any suggestions?
This didn’t work for me either. I wish it would have been this easy. I followed all the steps and the remote computer sees the shared printer but can never connect to it.
I did everything exactly as stated above on my Windows 7 Pro PC (printer is attached to this PC) and my Windows XP home PC,, tried to add a printer on the XP machine after installing the printer drivers on it, and it cannot find the printer on the network. Didn’t work for me.
24 Responses to “How to share your printer with the network, in Windows 10”
Followed every single step. Laptop can see printer connected to Desktop but doesn’t recognise it as a printer
Just looking at Printer & networks for Windows for It.108 class to comments Rob.
Would be nice if the author could explain at the end of the article what the word “render” actually means. The instructions as written don’t give me enough information to understand whether or not to check the box.
this was very helpful thanks
this helped a lot, but whenever the pc where the printer is connected restarts, all the other pc on the network cant connect again to the printer, thus, i have to remove the printer from the devices and printers again and reinstall it. so goes to the other pcs on the network. Is there a way so that it would be permanent? ii already tried using static ip. still the same.
We can all connect to our Network printer, but only one PC can print with the correct settings 🙁 As we use listing paper for our 5-part invoices, we’ve checked everything in the settings, but none of the other networks print so the paper lines up. Very annoying!
On windows 7… that your printer is hooked to… you have to turn off the user sharing password in the home groups…. it is under advanced settings….
my Windows 7 Pro PC (printer is attached to this PC) and my Windows XP home PC,, tried to add a printer on the XP machine after installing the printer drivers on it, and it cannot find the printer on the network. Didn’t work for me.
how can share printer hp laser jet m1005 for three pc
Hello,
My XP computer finds the printer in the list of available printers but still can’t connect because of permissions
thank you
Happy to help. If you find our content useful, don’t hesitate to subscribe. We even have a weekly newsletter that sends only 1 email/week with a summary of what we published that week. You might enjoy it. 😉
If you are in a work enviroment you have to have a passowrd for every user ( i dont know how that works) but you can deactivate that in the shared use options under “shared use advanced settings” : loo for “password protection” and deactivate it.
IN THIS TYPE IN CHECK
Control PanelAll Control Panel ItemsNetwork and Sharing CenterAdvanced sharing settings
SELECT home group connection in allow window manage homegroup conncection tick and ok
This is a problem with Windows 7. The only “easy” way to share a printer with Windows 7 is to set up a homegroup. Unfortunately, that doesn’t help in a work environment because the only way to join a homegroup is to change your network settings to a “home” environment. Sharing printers from Windows 7 is, and always will be, problematic. Best solution? Network your printer(s). If your printer is not ethernet ready, buy a print server. Shame on Microsoft because not only are they aware of the problem, they continue to furnish instructions for sharing that simply won’t work. Fix the problem or tell everyone that you won’t.
Windows 7 seems to be very paranoiac in terms to share something with others.
I did everything exactly as stated above on my Windows 7 Pro laptop (printer is attached to this laptop). Tried to add a printer on the XP machine after installing the printer drivers on it, and it cannot find the printer on the network. Didn’t work for me.
At home I bought the additional printer for XP machine – today simple laser printers does not cost much – less, then to hassle around with this problem.
At one workplace printer is shared in XP network with user names but no password to log on.
For Win 7 machine this is insurmountable problem!!! So they bought another printer for me – easier to do, no need to change the whole network.
for those having problems setting the printer to share: microsoft notes that windows firewall being disabled in services is the problem. even if turned off the firewall must be set to automatic in services, and started
I have three computers networked. They are Win7 64 bit, Win7 32 bit, and XP-Pro 32 bit.
I have all the printer drivers set to full share.
I found that there are no problems to share the printers between the two 32 bit systems. The Win7 64 bit computer seems to not be able to share the printers residing on the XP-Pro 32 bit computer.
Jerry G.
You cannot share a printer residing on another computer. You can just connect to it and use it. However, you will need to install 64-bit drivers for your printer on the 64-bit system.
I did everything as described, it found the printer shared everything shows and it installed the printer. When I go to print a test page, it shows it prints it in the que on both computers, but the file just hangs there and does not print. Any suggestions?
Maybe some technical problems? Like connection cable doesn’t really work, a contact is loose. It doesn’t “sound” like a software problem.
go to printer property, port and sellect virtual port w
This didn’t work for me either. I wish it would have been this easy. I followed all the steps and the remote computer sees the shared printer but can never connect to it.
I did everything exactly as stated above on my Windows 7 Pro PC (printer is attached to this PC) and my Windows XP home PC,, tried to add a printer on the XP machine after installing the printer drivers on it, and it cannot find the printer on the network. Didn’t work for me.