Windows 7 HomeGroup

Have you ever found yourself emailing files to the computer in the next room. Or saving a file to a thumb drive or other media and taking it to the computer in the next room? Well, you’ll love the HomeGroup feature in Windows 7. The HomeGroup feature allows you to easily connect two or more PCs running Windows 7 on your home network. With the HomeGroup set up, you can share printers, pictures, music, videos, and documents. We’ll show you how to get it set up and keep it protected with a strong password.

NOTE: You can join a HomeGroup in any edition of Windows 7, but you can only create one in Windows 7 Home Premium, Professional, Ultimate, or Enterprise editions.

Setting up your HomeGroup in Windows 7

There are several ways to access the HomeGroup feature, go to Control Panel and click on “Choose homegroup and sharing options” or just type “homegroup” without quotes into the start menu search bar.

Next click on the Create a homegroup button.

In the Create a HomeGroup screen select what you want to share with the other machines.

After the group is created you will get a password to access it from the other computers.

After you get the Password you’re brought back to the HomeGroup screen where you can make additional changes if you want.

Connecting to your HomeGroup

On the other Windows 7 computer(s) go into the HomeGroup feature and click to join the group you just created.

Enter in the password that was created for the HomeGroup.

When the password is accepted the connection will take place and your finished.

If you don’t want to use a password at all go into the Network and Sharing Center under advanced options and turn off password protected sharing.

Another thing you might want to do is create a shortcut to the HomeGroup. I just go into Network and copy the icon to my desktop by Right-Clicking and dragging it. A more direct approach is to create shortcuts directly to the shared public folders but of course it’s completely up to you.

To share a printer make sure to select Printers when creating the group and when you go into Devices and Printers on the Start menu you should see it and can set it as the default if you wish.

Set up may take a bit of time, but once it is set up life gets much easier.

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