The Network and Sharing Center in Windows 7
Posted on November 2, 2009 at 6:03 am
Windows 7 offers a very user friendly interface to connect computers to the network. If you’ve previously set up a home network using computers running Windows XP or Windows Vista, you’ll find that setting up a network with a mix of computers running Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7 is similar.
By far, the easiest way to set up file and printer sharing on a home network is to create a homegroup. A homegroup links computers on your network so that you can share pictures, music, videos, documents, and printers. You can help protect a homegroup with a password, and you’ll always be able to choose what you share with the group. If all of the computers that you want to network are running Windows 7, creating a homegroup is the recommended method.
HomeGroup is available in all editions of Windows 7. In Windows 7 Starter and Windows 7 Home Basic, you can join a homegroup, but you can’t create one.
Sometimes you would want to see who is currently connected to your network. To do that, open the Network Map under Control Panel and you will see all the computers connected to your network. In the example below there are 2 computers connected to my router, which connects to the Internet.
If you put your mouse over the computer, you will see more details like the computer name, IP address and the MAC address.
Besides the network map, you could also access more advanced network and sharing settings by clicking the advanced sharing settings.
With this panel, you can turn on/off network discovery, file and printer sharing, public folder sharing, media streaming and other settings. I like this panel a lot because it lets me administer the settings without having to grapple with separate windows and/or registry entry hacks.
Ben Carigtan shows you how it’s done.
» Filed Under Windows 7
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Hi, love the site, put many of the tips to use already
How does the homegroup setup work with other PC’s running XP and Macs? I currently just go into the properties and share a a folder, would this work any differently? Thanks
@Tom – The new Homegroup feature in Windows 7 is only for sharing files and printers with other Windows 7 machines. You can still share files with Macs and Windows XP computers, but you have to do it the traditional way. Only Windows 7 PCs can join a Homegroup.
On my Windows 7 PC, the network map feature is not working. There is a question mark there and nothing else! Why can’t I create a network map, is something disabled?
Networking printer on window 7 is not as easy as that. i get a message that tell me the driver for the printer are not in window 7 and to look elsewhere but the pc refuse to acept even the original disk with the driver in it what can i do next?