Last Updated on March 17, 2026
Now that many people have multiple computers in their home they are starting to look more into sharing resources like printers rather than buying one for each computer. If your computers at home are using a router for shared Internet access then you can also share your printer as well so you can print to it from other computers on your home network.
Windows allows you to share your printer over your work or home network to allow other computers that are not directly connected to the printer to print to it. This is different from having a wireless printer that doesn’t rely on the computer connected to it to share the printer out. Printer sharing is when you share a printer connected to an actual computer making that computer the print server for any other computers that print to its installed physical printer.
Configuring the Host Computer
1. Open Devices and Printers
With printer sharing you will have the computer that is attached to the printer share out the hardware so other computers can access it as if they were attached to it as well. This is a fairly easy thing to setup inside the Windows operating system. First go to your printer settings by clicking on your Start menu and searching for the classic Devices and Printers control panel. From there, double click on the specific printer you want to share across your network.
2. Access Printer Properties
Once you double click the device icon a new status window will appear on your screen. You must then click on the Customize your printer link to bring up its advanced properties menu. This specific window contains all the administrative settings required to broadcast the hardware over your local network.
3. Enable the Printer Share
Click directly on the Sharing tab located at the top of the properties window. You need to check the specific box that says Share this printer to activate the network feature. You can keep the default share name or make it something else if you prefer to easily identify it later. This is the exact name that will be displayed when other users attach to your shared printer over the network.
4. Install Additional Drivers
You might have older machines running different operating system architectures on your network. If the other computers that will be using this host computer need different drivers such as a legacy 32-bit driver, you must add them here. Click on the Additional Drivers button at the bottom of the window and check the appropriate architecture boxes.
Connecting the Client Computers
1. Search for the Network Printer
Now you can move over to the secondary client computer that needs remote printing access. Open the Windows File Explorer and browse your Network section. Search for your host Windows computer that has the printer physically attached to it. The interface will show the shared printer sitting right next to the host computer icon.
2. Install the Shared Device
Connecting to the shared hardware is incredibly simple. You would simply double click the shared printer icon to automatically install it on your local system. Windows pulls the necessary drivers directly from the host machine over the network. You can also share files and folders in Windows using this exact same networking method if needed.
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