Here we will talk about setting up a regular printer (or MFP) that is connected to one of the computers on the local network so that it is possible to print from any PC on this network.
- If you want to connect a regular printer via USB to a router and print from all network computers - see this article.
- If you need to configure a network printer, see this article.
- If you need to configure the printer via Wi-Fi via a router, see this article.
1. You need to set up a network or home group.
2. Verify that the printer connected to one of the computers prints. Just print a test page.
3. Enable file and printer sharing on all computers on the network.
You can do this at
In Windows 7, it is still advisable to "Disable sharing with password protection" in the same window.
4. Share the printer in the settings of the home group on the computer to which the device is connected.
This is configured at
In the "Printers and Devices" section, select "Sharing" from the drop-down list and click "Next." And "Done."
5. We make sharing for the connected printing device.
We go to the address
Control Panel Hardware and Sound Devices and Printers
Click on the icon of the printing device with the right mouse button and select "Printer Properties".
On the “Access” tab, set the “Share this printer” checkbox. Set the name of the shared resource. Preferably shorter and without spaces. Click OK.
After these manipulations, a shared printer appears on all network computers.
Manually setting up a shared printer
If the printing device does not appear on other computers.
Control Panel Hardware and Sound Devices and Printers
- In Windows 8 / 8.1 / 10, a window will appear in which the search for available printers will go. If the printing device is detected, select it, click "Next" and follow the prompts of the wizard.
- In Windows 7, you need to select "Add a network printer."
If the printing device is not found on the network, then click on the link “The required printer is not in the list”.
In the window that opens, double-click on the computer to which the printer is connected and select the printing device itself. Click "Next" and follow the prompts of the wizard. The shared printer is configured over the network.
We open access to the printer for a local area network
Before describing the settings, I consider important report a few points:
- you must have a PC, printer, and laptops (other PCs) to be configured,
- on a PC to which a printer is connected directly (to a USB port, for example), drivers must be installed (i.e. printing should work normally on the PC itself). To find and install a printer driver - here's an article in the topic,
- The local network must be configured: computers have the same workgroups (you can see if you go to properties of my computer ), and different computer names (in general, if your local network is working, then this is so.).
Here, by the way, is a relatively good (because mine) article on setting up a local network, I recommend that you familiarize yourself with someone who’s in a mess with LAN. The link is below.
Note: all the settings below are relevant for Windows 7, 8, 10.
Now let's get started with the setup. The first thing to do is set up the computer to which the printer is directly connected (that is, we "share" the printer: we give access and permission to use it to another PC on the local network).
1) First open control panel / network and internet / network and sharing control center . Next, click on the link on the left - "Change advanced sharing options" .
Change sharing options
2) Next, we will have three tabs: private , guest or public , and all networks . Now they need to be opened one by one and put ticks in the right places. About it below.
Note: in some cases there will be not 3 tabs, but 2. Then open the tabs that are and do according to the screenshots below.
Private, guest, all networks
3) Open the tab "Private" , and set the sliders to the following position (according to the screen below):
- enable network discovery (enable automatic configuration on network devices),
- enable file and printer sharing,
- Allow Windows to manage homegroup connections.
4) Then we open the following tab - "Guest or public" . We expose:
- enable network discovery
- enable file and printer sharing.
5) Last tab "All Networks" , here we expose:
- disable sharing
- use 128-bit encryption to protect shared connections,
- disable sharing with password protection.
Be sure to click save all changes!
A similar setting in these three tabs (private, guest, all networks) must be performed on all computers in the local network (and not just the one to which the printer is connected)! Otherwise, later it will not be possible to connect to the local printer.
Permission to access the printer
First you need to open the control panel at: control panel / equipment and sound / devices and printers . If you have installed drivers and everything is OK with the printer - here you should see it in the tab "Printers" .
Right-click on the printer that you want to make network (public), and go to it properties . In the properties, open the tab "Access" and put a couple of checkmarks:
- Sharing this printer
- drawing print jobs on client computers.
Sharing a printer (clickable!)
To check if your printer has become local - open a regular explorer (you can open any folder). On the left of the menu you should see your computer name . In my case - the computer name is "Desktop-UGHM5R" - we click on it and we see that in our window there is our shared printer.
Now you can begin to configure other computers to enable them to print to the printer.
Note: note that next to the name of your PC, the names of computers consisting of you on the same local network will be displayed.
How to connect a network printer and start printing
Important! Before you start connecting the printer, you must configure three network tabs: private, guest, all networks (I wrote about this a little higher). If you do not give permission to use shared folders, printers, etc., you will not see or connect the printer!
1) Turn on the computer from which we want to print (note: the PC is connected to a local area network in which there is a computer with a printer connected).
Open the explorer and click on the tab "Network" (left in the menu). Next, you should see a list of computers that are on the same local network with you: open the one on which there is a public printer (which we made a network in the previous step).
We go to the PC where the printer is open
2) Next, the icon and the name of the printer should appear - right-click on it and select "To plug" .
3) 1-2 minutes (usually) will be required to install and configure the driver. At this time, the PC is better not to touch or close this window (example on the screen below).
Driver Search Process
4) Next, if everything went well, the printer appears in the tab "Printers" and it can be used. Try to open some Word document, press the key combination Ctrl + P and send the document to print (do not forget to select a printer, by default, the printer you added is usually not installed).
Printer connected // task completed
Actually, that’s the whole Windows setup for creating a public local printer. As you can see, in this regard, in Windows (7, 8, 10) everything is quite simply organized - you can figure it out yourself.
An even more convenient and universal option is to connect the printer directly to a Wi-Fi router. Thus, it will not be necessary to keep the PC to which the printer is connected turned on. In principle, there is nothing complicated there either - usually, a router goes to the router. Software that performs a similar setup in auto mode.
File and Printer Sharing
- Press the button "Start" and go to the section called "Control Panel".
In the window that appears, go to the section in which the change of parameters is available "Networks and the Internet".
Go to Network and Sharing Center.
We note the sub-item that is responsible for including public access to digital signatures and printing devices, and we save the changes made.
By following the steps above, you will make digital signatures and printing equipment publicly available for users connected to the network. The next step is to open access to specific printing equipment.
Preset computer with printer
1) Naturally, you must first configure the local area network (LAN) itself - computers connected via a hub or router must be part of the same workgroup, etc.
2) Check if other computers connected to your local network are displayed in the system window Network. The posted image shows how it looks. In this case, of course, in your case, the names of computers and their number of computers will be different.
3) On the main computer, to which the printer is connected directly, the driver for the printer must be installed and its operation set up. In other words, the printer should be ready to print.
Sharing a printer (sharing a printer)
To share the printer, proceed in the menu Control Panel -> Equipment and sound -> Devices and Printers.
You can also immediately open this window as follows: press the key combination on the keyboard Win + rin the window that opens Run enter control printers, and then click Ok.
In this window you will see all printers installed in the system. Right-click on the printer that you want to make shared so that you can print to it from other computers on the network. In the context menu that appears, select Printer Properties.
In the printer properties window that opens, switch to the tab Access. There first press the button Sharing settings, and then check the box Sharing this printer.
If desired, you can also change the name of the printer, which will be displayed on other computers.
Now go to the tab Security. Here, select in the block Groups or Users paragraph All and enable printing for them by checking the corresponding box. Uncheck the boxes for the remaining printer controls.
If you are at a loss, then look at the image and make the adjustment exactly.
After making changes, press Ok to save the settings.
On this sharing printer can be considered complete. Now let's move on to setting up the computer (s) from which printing will be performed.
Setting the computer (s) from which to print
Before setting up the rest of the computers directly, the following conditions must be met:
- the computer and the printer attached to it must be turned on and ready to print
- settings must be made that were described above
If these conditions are met, then proceed to the configuration. To do this, open the system window Devices and Printers. How this can be done most quickly was described above.
In the window Devices and Printers that opens, click on the button located there Add Printer.
The process of finding and adding printers will start. If in your case several printers and other printing devices are detected, select yours and press Further.
In the subsequent process of installing the printer and drivers for it in the system, appropriate requests will appear - answer them in the affirmative.
Possible problems you may encounter at this stage:
1) If the printer was not detected during the installation, then try to restart all computers and try again.
2) The printer may not be detected even because different generations of operating systems are used, for example, Windows 7 and Windows 10. And you are guaranteed to encounter a problem if you try to share the printer on a computer with outdated Windows XP for printing with Windows 7, 8, 10 on your local network.
Solution: Stop using Windows XP and install the latest version of Windows on your computer.
3) Even if you use the operating system of the same generation, but their bit depth (how to determine the bit capacity of a system - 32 or 64 bit?) Is different, then problems may also arise - the appropriate driver will be requested.
Solution: try to independently search for drivers with the required bit depth, if they were not found and installed by the system in automatic mode.
I hope that you will not encounter these problems, and everything will be installed automatically.
At the end of the system, your printer will be displayed on which you can print documents and other materials, as if it were directly connected to your PC.
The only caveat: the computer to which the printer is directly connected must be in the on state at the time of sending data for printing. Otherwise, the documents will not be printed.
Brief summary
In this material, we examined in detail how to share (open shared) a printer on a local network. The steps and possible problems that lay in wait on the way to the desired were examined in detail.
I hope that this article has provided all possible assistance in setting up network sharing for the printer.
If you still have questions, you can ask them in the comments.
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Sharing a specific printer
- Go to "Start" and enter "Devices and Printers".
We move to "Access".
Celebrate “Sharing this printer”click Apply and further "OK".
After the steps taken, the printer began to be marked with a small icon indicating that this equipment for printing is available on the network.
That's all, by following these simple steps, you can enable printer sharing in Windows 7. Do not forget about the security of your network and use a good antivirus. Also enable a firewall.
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