Sharing Files, Digital Media, and Printers in a Homegroup (part 1) - Deciding What to Share—And What Not to Share

Microsoft usability researchers found that many home users choose not to use logon passwords. Because everyone in the home is fully trusted and because the computer is in a physically secure location (a locked home) that precludes computer use by unknown or untrusted users, these users find the logon password to be nothing more than an unnecessary obstacle to computer use. This can be a real annoyance to family users who simply want to share media throughout the house, share a printer, and share documents. For this reason, HomeGroup is designed to work equally well with computers and users that do not use logon passwords and those that do. Even without password protection, it keeps your files safe from users outside the homegroup. (It does so through the use of a special password-protected user account—HomeGroupUser$—and a HomeUsers security group that have network access privileges.

HomeGroup offers the following benefits:

• Easy sharing of libraries and other files throughout the homegroup in Windows Explorer

• Easy access to shared media libraries in Windows Media Player and Windows Media Center

• Ability to stream media to devices (other computers, media extenders and players, digital picture frames, and so on) using Play To

• Easy sharing of USB-connected printers among all homegroup members

The requirements to implement and use HomeGroup are few:

• At least one computer running Windows 7 Home Premium or above, to create the homegroup

• All computers in the homegroup running Windows 7

• The network location for all computers set to Home Network

Note:

HomeGroup can be useful even in networks that include a mix of computers running Windows 7, earlier versions of Windows, and other operating systems, such as Mac OS X and Linux. Although only the Windows 7 computers can use HomeGroup features, HomeGroup coexists nicely with the traditional sharing methods that you'll need to use to share with users of other operating systems. 

If you have only a single computer with Windows 7 but you also have networked media devices (for example, an Xbox 360 or a digital picture frame), HomeGroup can be useful. On that computer, after you create a homegroup you can discover these devices and play media to them more easily than you can with earlier Windows versions.

For users, setting up HomeGroup is a straightforward process. On one computer—it doesn't matter which one because HomeGroup is a true peer-to-peer networking system without a designated server/controller—you create a homegroup. Then, on other computers, you join the homegroup.

When you first create or join a homegroup, Windows asks which libraries you want to share, as shown in Figure 1. Not surprisingly, the libraries shown here correspond to the libraries you see in Windows Explorer. 

Note:

If your computer is joined to a domain, these sharing options are not available when you join a homegroup.

You can change your library selections at any time later by visiting HomeGroup, which you can open by typing homegroup in the Start menu search box or Control Panel, or by right-clicking Homegroup in Windows Explorer and choosing Change HomeGroup Settings. All those routes lead to HomeGroup, as shown in Figure 2.

Fortunately, you're not limited to sharing only the content of the Documents, Music, Pictures, or Videos libraries. If you would like to share other folders or files with users of other computers in your homegroup, you can use any of these methods:

• Add the folder (or folders) to an existing library. (You can do that by opening the library and clicking the Locations link, or by right-clicking the item you want to add and choosing Include In Library.) Folders and files that you add to a shared library are automatically shared, with no additional steps required.

• Create a new, custom library. (In Windows Explorer, right-click Libraries and choose New, Library, or right-click the folder to include and choose Include In Library, Create New Library.) Then share the library as explained below.

• Share a folder that's not in a library.

To share a custom library or one or more folders, open Windows Explorer and select the item (or items) you want to share. On the toolbar (shown below) or on the right-click menu, click Share With, Homegroup (Read) or Share With, Homegroup (Read/Write). Which command you select, of course, determines whether a homegroup user on another computer can create, modify, and delete folders and files within the shared folder. Both options share the selected item with your entire homegroup.

Warning:

Don't share the root folder of a drive (for example, D:\). Although sharing the root folder has long been common practice, we recommend against doing so. Because of the way permissions are inherited, changing permissions on the root folder can cause a variety of access problems. A better solution is to create a subfolder of the root folder, put everything you want to share into it, and share the subfolder.

To share with only certain individuals, choose Share With, Specific People. Doing so opens the File Sharing dialog box shown in Figure 3.

You also use the Share With command on the toolbar or the right-click menu to prevent sharing of a particular folder or file within a shared library or folder. Simply choose Share With, Nobody to stop sharing the selected items.

Similarly, you can override the default sharing settings within a library—public folders are shared with read/write access, and private profile folders are shared with read access—by selecting a folder or file within the shared library or folder and clicking Share With.

Note:

A computer joins a homegroup and, therefore, all users on that computer have access to the homegroup's shared resources. However, sharing options are maintained on a per-user basis; on a computer with more than one user account, each user decides which of his or her libraries to share. The first time a user goes to HomeGroup in Control Panel after the computer has been joined to a homegroup, a screen like the on shown next appears.