More and more households are venturing to use Windows 10 , the latest version of this popular operating system developed by Microsoft, especially when they acquire a new computer.
However, there are still users who continue to use Windows 7 or Windows 8 as their preferred operating system, due on many occasions to the fact that they are stable OS, they do not have many problems, and they have become accustomed to its operation.
Although this functionality disappeared in Windows 10, in the two previous versions, users could find Group at home , which consisted of a group of computers, located within the same home network, in order to be able to share files and printers with each other.
It stood out for being a useful function when sharing documents, videos, music, images and even printers with other people belonging to the same group, in a simple, easy and simple way, without having to do it by sending emails or through memories. USB.
If you are still using these operating systems, but have not made the most of this functionality, it is possible that you have not yet dared to share a printer in the Windows HomeGroup. If so, we explain how you can do it easily.
Creating a Home Group
One of the first steps if you haven’t already done so is to create the Home Group . To do this, you must type ‘home group’ in the search box on the taskbar, and then click on Home Group .
Once this is done, we select Create a group at home , and once chosen, click Next . Now we come to an important moment, since we must select which libraries and devices we want to share. Then we click Next .
Then a password will appear that the system will generate automatically, which we must print or write down, since it will be necessary to add other computers to our group. Finally, click on Finish .
Installing the printer on the computer
First we must install the printer on the computer from which we want to share it . To do this, you simply have to follow the steps that we have indicated in the note How to install a USB printer in Windows and Mac .
Now we open the Start menu and type ‘Home group’. In the new window that has just opened we must make sure that the Printer menu is activated with the Shared option. If you use Windows 7 it is essential that the Printers box is checked.
We now open the Home Group panel from the computer where we want to access the shared printer. And, when the option appears, the system will ask us to enter the password that was previously generated.
Once added, we proceed to click on Install Printer , which will install the shared printer on our computer. Of course, it is also possible that the system asks us to install the drivers.
Clever! Now we can proceed to print to the shared printer for a test run. In any case, remember that it is essential that the original computer to which the printer is connected must be turned on and you must have logged into Windows.
