{"id":278,"date":"2011-12-01T17:51:23","date_gmt":"2011-12-01T17:51:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/microsoftgeek.com\/?p=278"},"modified":"2012-02-10T00:02:27","modified_gmt":"2012-02-10T00:02:27","slug":"share-files-and-printers-between-windows-7-and-xp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/microsoftgeek.com\/?p=278","title":{"rendered":"Share Files and Printers between Windows 7 and XP"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>f you have a home network and are running Windows 7 and have XP on  other PC(s) you might want to share files between them.\u00a0 Today we will  look at the steps to share files and hardware devices like a printer.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Sharing Files In Windows 7 and XP<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Sharing folders between two Windows 7 machines with the new HomeGroup  feature is an easy process, but the HomeGroup feature is not compatible  with Vista or XP.\u00a0 For this tutorial we are using Windows 7 x64 RC1 and  XP Professional SP3 connected through a basic Linksys home wireless  router.<\/p>\n<p>First make sure both machines are members of the same Workgroup which by default is named Workgroup.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"workgroup\" src=\"http:\/\/www.howtogeek.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/05\/workgroup.png\" border=\"0\" alt=\"workgroup\" width=\"458\" height=\"506\" \/><\/p>\n<p>On the Windows 7 machine go into Control Panel \\ All Control Panel  Items \\ Network and Sharing Center then click on Change advanced sharing  settings.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"network and sharing\" src=\"http:\/\/www.howtogeek.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/05\/networkandsharing.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"238\" height=\"82\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"advanced\" src=\"http:\/\/www.howtogeek.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/05\/advanced.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"191\" height=\"156\" \/><\/p>\n<p>You will want to verify the following settings under Advanced Sharing Settings for the Home or Work and Public profile.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"home or work settings\" src=\"http:\/\/www.howtogeek.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/05\/homeorworksettings.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"622\" height=\"506\" \/><\/p>\n<p>If you want any user to have access the public shares turn off  password protection.\u00a0 This is located in Advanced Sharing Settings  toward the bottom of the list.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"turn off pw\" src=\"http:\/\/www.howtogeek.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/05\/turnoffpw.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"596\" height=\"200\" \/><\/p>\n<p>If you want to keep it enabled make sure there is a log in account for the other XP machines and they have a password.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"create pw\" src=\"http:\/\/www.howtogeek.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/05\/createpw.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"559\" height=\"309\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Now if you go into Network in Windows 7 you should see your XP  machine and the Windows 7 as well which in this case is Mysticgeek-PC.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"Explorer\" src=\"http:\/\/www.howtogeek.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/05\/Explorer.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"534\" height=\"508\" \/><\/p>\n<p>To share the printer on the Windows 7 machine go into Devices and  Printers from the Start menu and double click on the printer icon.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"devices\" src=\"http:\/\/www.howtogeek.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/05\/devices.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"601\" height=\"567\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Next double click on <em>\u201cCustomize your printer\u201d.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"1 Printer\" src=\"http:\/\/www.howtogeek.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/05\/1Printer.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"589\" height=\"567\" \/><\/p>\n<p>In the Properties screen click on the Sharing Tab and check the box to share the printer and type in its share name.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"2 printer share\" src=\"http:\/\/www.howtogeek.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/05\/2printershare.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"509\" height=\"566\" \/><\/p>\n<p>If your XP machine is an x86 OS you can install Additional Drivers before setting up the XP machine.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"3 Printer add drivers\" src=\"http:\/\/www.howtogeek.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/05\/3Printeradddrivers.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"475\" height=\"454\" \/><\/p>\n<p>To find the shared folders and devices double click on the Windows 7  machine icon under Network.\u00a0 Here you can see the printer connected to  my Windows 7 machine is shared and also the Users Folder.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"shared device and users\" src=\"http:\/\/www.howtogeek.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/05\/shareddeviceandusers.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"476\" height=\"413\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Continue into the Users folder and Public to see the shared folders,  here I also created a folder called XP Share just to keep everything in  central location.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"xpshare\" src=\"http:\/\/www.howtogeek.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/05\/xpshare.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"611\" height=\"413\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Over on your XP machine open up My Network Places to find the Windows 7 <em>(mysticgeek-pc)<\/em> shared folder.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"My Network Places\" src=\"http:\/\/www.howtogeek.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/05\/MyNetworkPlaces.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"442\" height=\"489\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Double click on the Share folder to find a list of shared folders in  the Public folder on Windows 7.\u00a0 If you have password protection enabled  you will need to type in the username and password of the user account  on the Windows 7 machine first.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"folders\" src=\"http:\/\/www.howtogeek.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/05\/folders.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"442\" height=\"489\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>Setup XP With Shared Printer<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>To set up the shared printer in XP you will need to go into Printers  and Faxes from the Start menu and kick off the Add Printer Wizard.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"add Printer\" src=\"http:\/\/www.howtogeek.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/05\/addPrinter.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"527\" height=\"416\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Now select <em>\u201cA network printer, or a printer attached to another computer\u201d<\/em> then hit Next.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"network option\" src=\"http:\/\/www.howtogeek.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/05\/networkoption.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"527\" height=\"416\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Next select<em> \u201cConnect to this printer\u2026\u201d <\/em>and type in the path for the printer connected to the Windows 7 machine and click next.<em> <\/em><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"print\" src=\"http:\/\/www.howtogeek.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/05\/print.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"527\" height=\"416\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Now click Yes to the confirmation message.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"confirm msg\" src=\"http:\/\/www.howtogeek.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/05\/confirmmsg.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"633\" height=\"113\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Then click Finish the printer to install and complete the Wizard.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"Complete\" src=\"http:\/\/www.howtogeek.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/05\/Complete.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"527\" height=\"416\" \/><\/p>\n<p>In some cases you will need to install the x86 XP drivers for the  shared printer because the Windows 7 drivers are not compatible with  XP.\u00a0 When everything is installed open up Printers and Faxes to find the  shared printer.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"in explorer\" src=\"http:\/\/www.howtogeek.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/05\/inexplorer.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"360\" height=\"319\" \/><\/p>\n<p>This should help you get started with sharing your files and other  devices with your Windows 7 machine.\u00a0 When I first started I was able to  see the printer on XP right away because I had a HomeGroup set up, but  once I deleted it I needed to share the printer like you would for a  workgroup.\u00a0 You might also have to do a couple restarts of the XP  machine for it to see the shared resources on Windows 7.\u00a0 If you have  had any experiences with sharing between Windows 7 and XP leave us a  comment!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>f you have a home network and are running Windows 7 and have XP on other PC(s) you might want to share files between them.\u00a0 Today we will look at the steps to share files and hardware devices like a printer. Sharing Files In Windows 7 and XP Sharing folders between two Windows 7 machines [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-278","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-win_7"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/microsoftgeek.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/microsoftgeek.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/microsoftgeek.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microsoftgeek.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microsoftgeek.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=278"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/microsoftgeek.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":405,"href":"https:\/\/microsoftgeek.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278\/revisions\/405"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/microsoftgeek.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=278"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microsoftgeek.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=278"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microsoftgeek.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=278"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}