Windows 10: Share a Printer in Windows 10

How to: Share a Printer in Windows 10

How to Share a Printer in Windows 10


Network printers are able to connect directly to your network using Wi-Fi or Ethernet, and are available to add for anyone on the same network by default.

If you have a printer connected to and setup on your computer instead, then you will need to share the printer before it will be available to add for anyone on the same network.

Network printer sharing allows another computer on your network to print to the printer connected to your computer on the same network.

The HomeGroup service will no longer be available starting with Windows 10 build 17063. The user profile used for sharing and the file/folder/printer shares will continue to work.

This tutorial will show you how to unshare or share a printer over the network without using HomeGroup in Windows 10.

You must be signed in as an administrator to share a printer connected to your PC.

*note Requirements to share a printer:

• The printer must be connected to your PC, setup on your PC, and powered on.
• File and printer sharing must be turned on.

*note If your computer is turned off (shut down) or goes into standby (sleep/hibernate), the shared printer connected to your computer will be unavailable to other computers on the network.

*note If the shared printer is powered off, then it will of course be unavailable to other computers on the network.


CONTENTS:

• Option One: Share or Unshare a Printer in Settings
• Option Two: Share or Unshare a Printer in Control Panel
• Option Three: Share or Unshare a Printer in PowerShell

OPTION ONE [/i] Share or Unshare a Printer in Settings
1. Open Settings, and click/tap on the Devices icon.

2. Click/tap on Printers & scanners on the left side, click/tap on a printer you want to share on the right side, and click/tap on the Manage button. (see screenshot below)



3. Click/tap on the Printer properties link. (see screenshot below)



4. Do step 5 (share) or step 6 (unshare) below for what you would like to do.


5. To Share a Printer
A) Click/tap on the Sharing tab. (see screenshot below)

B) Check Share this printer.

C) Make any changes you want to the Share name for this printer.

*note The share name is what the other computers on your network will need to enter when adding this shared printer.

D) Check Render print jobs on client computers



D) If this printer is shared with users running different architectures (32-bit or 64-bit) of Windows, you can click/tap on the Additional Drivers button to install additional drivers, so that the users can have them downloaded and installed automatically from your computer when they add the shared printer on their computer. This way they do not have to manually find and install the print driver. (see screenshot above and screenshots below)


Note When you click/tap on the Additional Drivers button, you will need to:

• Check the "Processor" boxes for the type of drivers not showing as installed you want to install, and click/tap on OK.
• Browse to where the printer driver .inf file is located.
• Select the .inf file (driver), click/tap on Open, and click/tap on OK to install it.

E) When finished, click/tap on OK, and go to step 7 below. (see screenshot below step 5D)

6. To Unshare a Printer
A) Click/tap on the Sharing tab. (see screenshot below)

B) Uncheck Share this printer.

C) Click/tap on OK, and go to step 7 below.




7. You can now close Settings if you like.

8. If you shared the printer, computers on your same network will now be able to add this shared printer.





OPTION TWO [/i] Share or Unshare a Printer in Control Panel
1. Open the Control Panel (icons view), and click/tap on the Devices and Printers icon.

2. Right click or press and hold on the printer you want to share, and click/tap on Printer properties. (see screenshot below)



3. Do step 4 (share) or step 5 (unshare) below for what you would like to do.


4. To Share a Printer
A) Click/tap on the Sharing tab. (see screenshot below)

B) Check Share this printer.

C) Make any changes you want to the Share name for this printer.

*note The share name is what the other computers on your network will need to enter when adding this shared printer.

D) Check Render print jobs on client computers



D) If this printer is shared with users running different architectures (32-bit or 64-bit) of Windows, you can click/tap on the Additional Drivers button to install additional drivers, so that the users can have them downloaded and installed automatically from your computer when they add the shared printer on their computer. This way they do not have to manually find and install the print driver. (see screenshot above and screenshots below)


Note When you click/tap on the Additional Drivers button, you will need to:

• Check the "Processor" boxes for the type of drivers not showing as installed you want to install, and click/tap on OK.
• Browse to where the printer driver .inf file is located.
• Select the .inf file (driver), click/tap on Open, and click/tap on OK to install it.

E) When finished, click/tap on OK, and go to step 6 below. (see screenshot below step 4A)

5. To Unshare a Printer
A) Click/tap on the Sharing tab. (see screenshot below)

B) Uncheck Share this printer.

C) Click/tap on OK, and go to step 6 below.




6. You can now close Devices and Printers if you like.

7. If you shared the printer, computers on your same network will now be able to add this shared printer.





OPTION THREE [/i] Share or Unshare a Printer in PowerShell

*note To see more usage options for the Set-Printer command, see: Set-Printer | Microsoft Docs
1. Open an elevated PowerShell.

2. Copy and paste the command below into the elevated PowerShell, and press Enter. (see screenshot below)


Note Make note of the current name (ex: "HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP M477 PCL 6") of the printer you want to share. This is the name of the printer on your computer.

Make note of the current share name (ex: "HP LaserJet Pro Shared") of the printer you want to share if you want to change it. The share name is what the other computers on your network will need to enter when adding this shared printer. The share name can be different than the name above.

You will also see if the listed printers are shared or not (True or False).

*Arrow Get-Printer | Format-List Name,ShareName,Shared





3. Do step 4 (share) or step 5 (unshare) below for what you would like to do.


4. To Share a Printer
A) Type the command below you want to use into the elevated PowerShell, press Enter, and go to step 6 below. (see screenshots below)

(Share printer and use current share name)
*Arrow Set-Printer -Name "Printer name" -Shared $True

OR

(Share printer and specify new share name)
*Arrow Set-Printer -Name "Printer name" -Shared $True -ShareName "Printer share name"



Note Substitute Printer name in the command above with the actual name (ex: "HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP M477 PCL 6") of the printer from step 2 you want to share.

For example:

(Share printer and use current share name)
Set-Printer -Name "HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP M477 PLC 6" -Shared $True

OR

(Share printer and specify new share name)
Set-Printer -Name "HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP M477 PLC 6" -Shared $True -ShareName "HP LaserJet Pro Shared"







5. To Unshare a Printer
A) Type the command below into the elevated PowerShell, press Enter, and go to step 6 below. (see screenshot below)

*Arrow Set-Printer -Name "Printer name" -Shared $False



Note Substitute Printer name in the command above with the actual name (ex: "HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP M477 PCL 6") of the printer from step 2 you want to share.

For example: Set-Printer -Name "HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP M477 PLC 6" -Shared $False



6. You can now close the elevated PowerShell if you like.

7. If you shared the printer, computers on your same network will now be able to add this shared printer.

That's it,
Shawn


Related Tutorials

• How to Share Files and Folders Over a Network in Windows 10
• How to Turn On or Off File and Printer Sharing in Windows 10
• How to Add a Shared Printer in Windows 10
• How to Create a Printers Folder Shortcut in Windows
• How to Rename a Printer in Windows 10
• How to Backup and Restore Printers in Windows
• How to Remove a Printer in Windows 10
• How to Uninstall a Printer Driver in Windows 10
• How to List All Installed Printers in Windows 10

:)

 

Can't share printer—getting error message

Step 1: Go to store.
Step 2: Buy a less shitty printer.
Step 3: Pick up some beer while you are there.
Step 4: Enjoy both your new printer and your beer.

In all seriousness, I have had more issues with Lexmark printers and their shitty drivers then any other manufacturer, HP is a close second though.

However, if you don't want to get a new printer*Laugh :laugh:, and I can understand that, when my Lexmark was giving me the same troubles in Win7(and Vista) I had to make sure the Windows firewall was ON and the firewall service was enabled and running. After I shared it I could re-disable the firewall and firewall services.

 

Can't share printer—getting error message

Yeah, I have windows firewall disabled, and I don't use any other firewall... mostly to prevent stupid issues like this.

None taken... and yeah, I do.

 

Printer Sharing

Hi Bransby,

Thank you for posting your query in Microsoft Community. Appreciate your interest in using Windows 10.

I would suggest you to follow the below steps and check if it helps

Computer you are sharing from

1. Type "Device and Printers" in the web and windows box

2. Find your printer

3. Right click on the printer

4. Select “Printer properties"

5. Click on the sharing tab

6. Check "sharing this printer"

7. Give the printer a Name

8. Click apply

Computer you are trying to share to:

1. Type "Device and Printers" in the web and windows box

2. Check for printer the devices and printers.

3. if it is not there click "add printer"

4. If the printer does not show up click “The printer that i wanted wasn't list"

Hope the information is helpful. Feel free to write to us for any other assistance with Windows, we’ll be glad to assist you.

 

turning on file and printer sharing windows 10

Thank you for the update. What we can suggest now is to turn on File and Printer sharing in Command Prompt. Here are the steps to do it:

• Leave File and Printer Sharing for Microsoft Networks turned
  on.
• Type CMD in the Search bar.
• Right-click on Command Prompt, and select Run as Administrator.
• Type netsh advfirewall firewall set rule group="File and Printer Sharing" new enable=Yes, and hit
  Enter.
• Exit from the command prompt, and check if it will work.

If issue persists, try turning it on using Powershell, and check if it works. Here are the steps:

• Leave File and Printer Sharing for Microsoft Networks turned
  on.
• Type Powershell in the Search bar.
• Right-click on Windows PowerShell, and select
  Run as Administrator.
• Type netsh advfirewall firewall set rule group="File and Printer Sharing" new enable=Yes, and hit
  Enter.
• Close PowerShell.

Let us know how it goes.

 

Printer sharing Windows 10 and Windows XP

Hello,

Thank you for posting your query in Microsoft Community.

I suggest you to check the user manual of the printer to know more about sharing. You can also refer to the steps given in the link below to know more about sharing. The article given below is for Windows 8.1 but the steps are same for Windows 10.

Share a printer

Hope this information is helpful. Please feel free to reply in case you face any other issues with Windows in future.