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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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
E) 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)
When you click/tap on the Additional Drivers button, you will need to:
1) Check the "Processor" boxes for the type of drivers not showing as installed you want to install, and click/tap on OK.
2) Browse to where the printer driver .inf file is located.
3) Select the .inf file (driver), click/tap on Open, and click/tap on OK to install it.
F) When finished, click/tap on OK, and go to step 7 below. (see screenshot below step 5D)
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.
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.
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.
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
E) 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)
When you click/tap on the Additional Drivers button, you will need to:
1) Check the "Processor" boxes for the type of drivers not showing as installed you want to install, and click/tap on OK.
2) Browse to where the printer driver .inf file is located.
3) 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)
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.
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)
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).Get-Printer | Format-List Name,ShareName,Shared
3 Do step 4 (share) or step 5 (unshare) below for what you would like to do.
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)
Set-Printer -Name "Printer name" -Shared $True
OR
(Share printer and specify new share name)
Set-Printer -Name "Printer name" -Shared $True -ShareName "Printer share name"
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"
A) Type the command below into the elevated PowerShell, press Enter, and go to step 6 below. (see screenshot below)
Set-Printer -Name "Printer name" -Shared $False
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
- How to Enable or Disable Printer Sharing with Windows Sandbox in Windows 10
Share a Printer in Windows 10
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New #1
Can I share printer without a .inf file?
Shawn,
Thanks for all the tutorials
I would like to setup a shared Brother printer (HL-5240).
Brother has a nice web site but I do not see a .inf file.
Is it possible to setup printer sharing without a .inf file?
Thanks,
Gordon
Desktop win10 32 bit, Brother HL-5240 printer
Laptop win10 64 bit.
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New #2
I'll chime in and say I don't think that's possible cause the other machines need to know how to communicate with the printer and that's what the .inf (information) file is for (in keeping things simple).
Share a Printer in Windows 10
How to Share a Printer in Windows 10Published by Shawn BrinkCategory: Network & Sharing
02 Jul 2020
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