Does Windows 10 support file and printer sharing?

Updated on March 25, 2022

Table of Contents Show

Configure File/Printer Sharing Settings in Windows 10, 8, 7, Vista and XP
Enable or Disable File and Printer Sharing in Windows 10, 8, and 7
Turn On or Off File and Printer Sharing in Windows Vista and XP
Enable Files and Printer Sharing on Windows 10 and 11
How to Share a Folder over the Network in Windows 10 and 11?
How to Share Printer on a Network in Windows 10 and 11?
How do I enable printer and File Sharing Windows 10?
Does Windows 10 support File Sharing?
Should I turn on file and printer sharing?

Since Windows 95, Microsoft has supported file and printer sharing. This networking feature is particularly useful on home networks but can be a security concern on public networks.

Below are instructions for enabling the feature if you wish to share files and printer access with your network, but you can also follow along to disable file and printer sharing if that concerns you.

The steps for enabling or disabling file and printer sharing are slightly different for Windows 10/8/7, Windows Vista and Windows XP, so pay close attention to the differences when they're called out.

Instructions in this article apply to Windows 11, 10, 8, 7, Vista, and XP.

Open the Control Panel. The quickest method is to open the Run dialog box with the Win + R keyboard combination and enter the command control and press Enter.
Select Network and Internet if you're viewing the categories in Control Panel, or skip down to Step 3 if you just see a bunch of Control Panel applet icons.
Open Network and Sharing Center.
From the left pane, choose Change advanced sharing settings.
Listed here are the different networks you're using. If you want to disable file and printer sharing on the public network, open that section. Otherwise, choose a different one.
Find the File and Printer Sharing section of that network profile and adjust the option, selecting either Turn on file and printer sharing or Turn off file and printer sharing.

Some other sharing options might be available here too, depending on your version of Windows. These might include options for public folder sharing, network discovery, HomeGroup and file sharing encryption.
Choose Save changes.

The above steps let you have a finer control over file and printer sharing but you can also enable or disable the feature through Control Panel > Network and Internet > Network Connections. Right-click the network connection and go into Properties and then the Networking tab. Check or uncheck File and Printer Sharing for Microsoft Networks.

Open Control Panel.
Choose Network and Internet (Vista) or Network and Internet Connections (XP) if you're in category view or skip down to Step 3 if you see the Control Panel applet icons.
In Windows Vista, choose Network and Sharing Center.
In Windows XP, choose Network Connections and then skip down to Step 5.
From the left pane, choose Manage network connections.
Right-click the connection that should have printer and file sharing turned on or off, and select Properties.
In the Networking (Vista) or General (XP) tab of the connection's properties, check or uncheck the box next to File and Printer Sharing for Microsoft Networks.
Click OK to save the changes.

Thanks for letting us know!

Get the Latest Tech News Delivered Every Day

This article will show you how to share folders, files, and printers between Windows 10/11 devices on your home or small office network. Prior to Windows 10 1803, you could use the HomeGroup feature to share resources across a Windows network, making it easy to create a small home or office network and quickly share folders and printers. In modern Windows builds, you can use the built-in SMB features to share files and printers without HomeGroup.

In order for your Windows computer to act as a server that will share its folders and printers with other devices on your local network, you need to configure some network services and sharing options. We described all these settings and services in the detailed article Windows not showing computers in a network.

In Windows settings (on both computers), go to the Settings -> Network and Internet -> select your network connection (Ethernet or Wi-Fi) -> Change advanced sharing options (or run the command control.exe /name Microsoft.NetworkAndSharingCenter /page Advanced).

Then enable two options in the Private section:

Turn on network discovery;
Turn on file and printer sharing.

In the All networks section select the following options:

Turn on sharing so anyone with network access can read and write files in the Public folder;
Turn off password protected sharing.

You can disable password protection on the home network because you trust all the devices in it.

For a small office LAN, it is better to use password protection. In this case, you need to authenticate on the remote computer to access shared folders and printers. You can either authenticate with the remote computer’s user account and password, or you can create the same account with the same password on all computers and use it to log into the computer.

Check that the following conditions are true:

All computers on your local network use unique names and IP addresses;
The type of network is Private (read more about network profiles in Windows);
If your network still has computers with legacy Windows versions (XP, Vista), you will have to enable SMBv1 protocol support for their communication in Windows 10 and 11, as well as allow network access under a guest account (see the article);
Set the Function Discovery Resource Publication and Function Discovery Provider Host services to start automatically. Otherwise, when accessing shared network resources, you may receive the error 0x80070035: The network path was not found.

You need to set the same settings on another Windows computer, which will be used as a client and access your shared resources over the network.

In Windows, you can share any local directory over the network. After that, other computers on the local network will be able to open files from this shared network folder. Let’s see how to share a folder in modern builds of Windows 10 and 11 in your workgroup or domain.

1. Open the Windows File Explorer and locate the folder you want to share;
2. Right-click on it and select Give access to -> Specific people;
3. You can grant access to a specific account (with password access enabled: the user will be prompted for a password when accessing this network folder). Or you can allow access for all users, including anonymous ones (the Everyone group). In this case, when accessing files in this shared folder, the password will not be requested;
4. When configuring permissions to access a shared folder, you can grant Read, Read/Write permissions or Remove access for the specific users or groups;
5. If you have not previously enabled network discovery, you will be prompted:
```
Network discovery and file sharing
Do you want to turn on network discovery and file sharing for all public networks? 
- No, make the network that I am connected to a private network (Network discovery and file sharing will be turned on for private networks, such as those in homes and workplaces).
- Yes, turn on network discovery and file sharing for all public networks.
```
  If you are setting up a home or office network, select that your network is private
6. You will then receive a message that your folder is shared and its UNC network address: \\Desktop-IOPF9\Distr. You can copy this link to the clipboard or send it by e-mail.

Tip. To view a complete list of shared folders on your computer, open the following path in the File Explorer: \\localhost .

You can use the fsmgmt.msc (Shared Folder Management) console to fine-tune settings and permissions for network shares.

Open the Shared Folders console and go to the Shared section;
It contains a list shared folder on your computer. It also displays the administrative shares (Admin$, C$, IPC$, etc.), and the number of remote connections to each share (Client Connections);
To create a new shared folder on a Windows computer, select Action -> New Shared Folder;
The shared folder wizard opens. Select the local folder that you want to share, and set its network name (Share Name). You can allow this folder to be used offline, and set access permissions;
In addition, in this console, you can view or change the current access permissions to the shared folder. A network folder has two access lists: Share Permissions and Security (NTFS file system permissions). If you grant access to Everyone at the share level, then effective access permissions to files and folders will be determined by NTFS ACL on the Security tab.

Now you can open this folder over the network from another computer. To do this, open File Explorer and navigate to the UNC path of the shared folder (for example \\Desktop-IOPF9\Tools). For convenience, you can create a desktop shortcut to this folder on your desktop or map it as a network drive using the net use command.

Note. If you can’t open a shared folder from a remote computer, check that the Windows Defender firewall settings allow to access shared files and printers on a private network (File and Printer Sharing firewall rules). Also, try accessing a shared folder not by computer name but by IP address. For example: \\192.168.13.202\Distr.

In Windows, you can share a local printer connected to your computer with other computers over the network. We assume that you have already connected the printer (via USB, LPT, or wireless connection) and configured it on your computer.

To share a printer on a Windows 10/11 computer (to which the printer is directly connected to):

Go to Settings -> Bluetooth and Devices -> Printers and scanners (or use the Settings URI command: ms-settings:printers);
Select the printer you want to share and click the “Printer properties“;
Go to the Sharing tab;
Click the Change Sharing Options button, then enable the Share this printer option and specify the printer’s share name.

The shared printer name must not contain spaces or special characters, use only English letters and numbers (this name will be used to connect the printer to other computers).

You can share a printer using PowerShell commands. Get a list of installed printers on your computer:

Get-Printer

Share the printer over the network by its name:

Set-Printer -Name "HP LaserJet M1536" -Shared $True -ShareName "HPLJM1536"

You can now connect this shared printer to another Windows computer.

The easiest way to connect the shared printer is through the network environment;
Right-click on the Start menu and select Run, or press the key combination Win+R;
Connect to a remote computer with a shared printer by its name or IP address (you can get the computer name with hostname or IP address with ipconfig command). Enter the remote computer name in UNC path format: \\ComputerName or \\IPaddress (for example \\192.168.13.202 ) and press OK;
If password protection is enabled on the remote computer, a window will appear asking you to enter the user name and password to connect. Then you will see a list of shared folders and printers on the remote host;
Right-click the printer you want to install and select the Connect option. Windows will download and install the print driver from the remote computer and connect the shared network printer;
Now you can use this printer to send your print tasks to a remote computer.

If you connect a shared printer, the error Operation failed with error 0x0000011b may appear.

The latest Windows security updates block the installation of printer drivers from a remote computer. To bypass this restriction, run the following commands on the remote computer with a shared printer, and then reboot it:

reg add "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Print" /v RpcAuthnLevelPrivacyEnabled /t REG_DWORD /d 0 /f reg add "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows NT\Printers\PointAndPrint" /v RestrictDriverInstallationToAdministrators /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f

Or you need to manually install the print driver on your computer before connecting the shared network printer (more secure way).

You can also connect the shared printer from a remote computer using the PowerShell command:

Add-Printer -ConnectionName \\192.168.13.102\HPLJM1536

Turn on Sharing in Settings.

Select the Start button, then select Settings > Network & Internet > Wi-Fi..

Under Related settings, select Change advanced sharing options..

In the Advanced sharing settings dialog box, expand the Private section. ... .

Under File and printer sharing, select Turn on file and printer sharing..

Using the built-in File Sharing feature on Windows 10 is the best method to share files in a local network, as it is more flexible. You can use more restrictive permissions and share files with virtually any device, including Mac, Android, and Linux devices.

If you need to access your computer from a remote PC or browse the PCs and devices on your local network, you need to set it to Home (Private). For these network discovery and sharing features to work properly, file and printer sharing must be turned on.