My Tech Fundas: Tips and Techniques

If you have two or more computers networked together at home or work there most likely will be a time when you want to get a file or folder off of one of the other computers that you aren't working on. This is where file sharing comes into play.

The easiest way to share a folder is to open Windows Explorer or My Computer and browse to the folder that contains the file(s) you want to share. Then you will right click the folder and select Sharing and Security. You will get a dialog box similar to the one below. If you get a message warning you of the risks of file sharing just click on the section that says you understand the risks and to just enable file sharing.

Next you will click on Share this folder and type in a name or leave the default name of the folder. You can click on Permissions to allow or disallow certain users access to the shared folder. You can access these folders several different ways. See the accessing shared resources link for more information.

Sharing printers is very similar to sharing folders. Go to your printers folder by clicking on Start, Settings and then Control Panel or Start then Control panel depending on how your taskbar is setup. Right click the printer you want to share and select Sharing. You will see a dialog box like the following.

Click on Share this printer, type in a name and click on Ok. If you have other versions of Windows on your network you may have to click on the Additional Drivers button to install different drives to support those operating systems.

** Note**

If you are running an older version of Windows such as Windows 98 or ME you may have to enable file and printer sharing before seeing the sharing options when you right click. Click here for more details. Also keep in mind the dialog boxes shown here may not look the same but the concepts are very similar.