Homegroup question.

Hey Guys,
I got a question about Home group in windows 7. I have my desktop and my brother's desktop running Windows 7 Pro(32-bit), and my mothers desktop running Vista(32-bit, I think). There isn't a Home group set up. But I can see their computers when I'm in my computer. Why?
I was setting up my laptop(so was my brother)(That latitude I mentioned it's got Windows Ultimate 64-bit.) and it came to the "Home group" thing and said it needs the password(same if I click on their computer icons in My Computer). There isn't a Home group set up so why is it asking for this?
Thanks,
Spock96

PS: How would I set up a Home group if I wanted to with those 5 machines?

 

Odds are you are all on the same default WorkGroup. When you start up a PC for the first time, it is assigned to a default Workgroup, usually titled "WORKGROUP". Since you are all part of the "WORKGROUP" workgroup, your allowed to see their PC's, but not access them. With a Workgroup, you have to enable sharing in order to access files on that PC.

A HomeGroup in essence, shares the entire PC and anything connected to it, with anyone else in the same HomeGroup. The link below shows an easy tutorial on setting up a Homegroup through your network so you can all share your documents.

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/help/home-sweet-homegroup-networking-the-easy-way

And here is a helpful link to explain the differences between workgroup, homegroup and domain.

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/...-between-a-domain-a-workgroup-and-a-homegroup

 

Thank you.

 

Hey Guys,
How would I set-up a Home Group so I can access my wireless printer with my laptop?

 

You can either follow the directions in the link that I gave you to create a homegroup, or I found it easier to just add the printer to my PC. You should be able to find the printer in the Add printer wizard.

Click start and go to Devices and Printers.

Click Add Printer at the top, then click Add network, wireless, or bluetooth printer. As long as the printer is on, it should find it there.

If it doesn't, click the "The printer that I want isn't listed". Then select the " Find from Directory..." Or if you know the IP address, you can choose "Add printer using TCP/IP address..."