Sharing Files, Digital Media, and Printers in a Homegroup (part 2)

2. Browsing Shared Folders and Files

You've probably noticed the Homegroup node in the navigation pane of Windows Explorer. Figure 4 shows an example.

You can use folders and files in the Homegroup node just like you can use folders and files in your own libraries. Tasks you can perform include

• Preview and open files

• Play music, pictures, or video (notice the Play All button on the toolbar)

• Search throughout a folder, a library, a user, or the entire homegroup

• Add a shared folder to one of your local libraries

• Add, modify, and delete files (only in libraries or folders shared with read/write access)

When you add a file to a shared library on another computer (for example, by dragging a song file to a shared Music library), the file goes into the library's public folder (in our example, it would go to the %Public%\Music folder on the remote computer).

You can also browse shared media libraries using Windows Media Player. Shared libraries appear in the navigation pane under Other Libraries. 

If you use Windows Media Center, you'll discover that shared media files appear there too. In Media Center, choose the Shared option above a gallery (music, pictures, videos, or recorded TV) to see a list of shared libraries, as shown below. 

3. Streaming Media in a Homegroup

Media streaming is the process of delivering media (pictures, music, video, and recorded TV) over a network in a continuous flow of data. With streaming, you can play to network devices such as digital media receivers and digital picture frames, as well as to computers. HomeGroup enables and simplifies the streaming process. To enable streaming of media on your computer to other devices, in HomeGroup (shown earlier in Figure 2), select Stream My Pictures, Music, And Videos To All Devices On My Home Network.

In the bad old days of home networking, many users found it easier to send a document that needed to be printed via e-mail or USB flash drive to the computer with an attached printer. HomeGroup greatly simplifies the process. If a homegroup member computer has a printer connected to one of its USB ports, and if the computer's user has chosen to share its printers (by selecting the Printers check box in HomeGroup, shown in Figure 2), all homegroup users have access to that printer.

If the printer has been certified by the Windows Logo Program, it shows up automatically in the Devices And Printers folder of all homegroup users. HomeGroup obtains the driver files from the host computer whenever possible or downloads them from the internet if necessary (for example, if the host computer runs 32-bit Windows and your computer has 64-bit Windows installed), and then installs the driver without requiring any user intervention. (Note that it might take a few minutes after joining or connecting to a homegroup for HomeGroup to discover the shared printer and install the driver.)

When you share a printer that is not Windows Logo–certified, HomeGroup displays a popup message to notify other homegroup members that a printer is available. If you miss the pop-up, you can view the notification in HomeGroup, as shown below. Click Install Printer to set it up on your computer. (The reason for this extra step is security: HomeGroup won't install an unsigned third-party driver without your consent.)

If the shared printer is connected to a desktop computer (but not a laptop) that is in sleep mode, sending a print request to the printer uses Wake On LAN to awaken the computer so that it can perform the print job. After completing the print job, the computer returns to sleep.

Windows sets the most recently shared printer to be the default printer unless you have manually selected a default printer. Note that it's the default printer only for your home network, however. With a feature called Location Aware Printing, if you have a mobile domain-joined computer that travels between work and home, it retains its default printer on each network and automatically changes the default to the home printer when you connect to the home network.

5. Using HomeGroup with a Domain-Based Computer

A computer that is joined to an Active Directory domain (typically, a business network based on Windows Server) can join a homegroup, making it easy and productive to bring home a work computer and have access to home resources such as media, documents, and printers. It's also secure, due to differences in the way HomeGroup works on a domain-joined computer.

The principal difference is that a domain-joined computer can see and use all shared resources in the homegroup, but other homegroup members cannot see anything on the domain-joined computer. (This is done to protect your business documents and files from inadvertent access by others in your home.) When you create or join a homegroup using a domain member computer, the dialog box does not include any of the sharing options (Pictures, Music, Videos, and so on) that appear for other homegroup users.

Some corporate administrators might not relish the idea of you listening to music with Windows Media Player or watching television with Windows Media Center while you're working at home; those taskmasters can use Group Policy to prevent the computer from joining a homegroup. (For details, see "Disabling HomeGroup," following.)

6. Leaving a Homegroup

If you decide that HomeGroup isn't for you (or, perhaps, you want to join a different home-group), you can leave a homegroup. Open HomeGroup (shown earlier in Figure 2) and click Leave The Homegroup. Because HomeGroup is a true peer-to-peer network, when any computer leaves the homegroup, the homegroup remains intact and all other members are unaffected (except they'll no longer be able to see your computer's resources, of course).

Note, however, that the Homegroup icon remains in Windows Explorer even after leaving the homegroup. Selecting the icon displays a message that includes an option to join a homegroup (if one is detected) or create one.

7. Disabling HomeGroup

If you see no need for HomeGroup and are annoyed by the presence of the empty Home-group node in the navigation pane of Windows Explorer, it's easy to banish the feature altogether. Simply change your network location to Work Network.

To do that, open Network And Sharing Center and, under View Your Active Networks, click Home Network. In the dialog box that appears, click Work Network. The next time you start Windows Explorer, the Homegroup icon is gone.

An administrator can also disable HomeGroup by using Group Policy. Open Local Group Policy Editor (Gpedit.msc), and navigate to Computer Configuration\Administrative Templates\Windows Components\HomeGroup. Double-click the Prevent The Computer From Joining A Homegroup policy and select Enabled. After rebooting, the computer can't join a homegroup. Furthermore, the Homegroup node does not appear in Windows Explorer, even if the network location is Home Network.

8. HomeGroup: How It Works

The simplicity of setting up and using HomeGroup belies its complexity. The basic sharing mechanism uses standard sharing protocols that have been part of Windows for many years. In short, HomeGroup grants share permissions and applies an access control entry (ACE) to each shared object allowing access to a group called HomeUsers. A password-protected account (which is required for accessing shared objects over a network connection) named HomeGroupUser$ is a member of HomeUsers, and acts as your proxy in accessing shared network resources. (In fact, even if your user account is password protected, HomeGroup still uses the HomeGroupUser$ account to connect to a remote computer instead of using your account, unless you select the Use User Accounts And Passwords To Connect To Other Computers option in Advanced Sharing Settings.

Warning:

Do not change the password for the HomeGroupUser$ account; doing so is a recipe for disaster. (Note that the account password is not the same as the homegroup password.)

But there's much more going on with HomeGroup. Creating or joining a workgroup creates the HomeGroupUser$ account and the HomeUsers group, and adds all local accounts to the group. HomeGroup setup also configures Windows Firewall. (Specifically, it enables certain rules in the Core Networking, Network Discovery, and HomeGroup groups. And for computers that are not joined to a domain, it enables rules in the File And Printer Sharing, Windows Media Player, and Windows Media Player Network Sharing Service groups.) In addition, it configures the HomeGroup Provider and HomeGroup Listener services. (Home-Group also relies on Function Discovery and several other networking services.)