Printer sharing

[mistycom]

I need help on sharing printers between my laptop and desktop computer(which is connected to the printer). The way i know of(i haven't tried that though) is the typical windows sharing which requires the computer connected to the printer to be powered on when printing from a shared computer. I just heard of the new feature introduced by Windows 7, the Homegroup network and would like to make use of it to do the sharing. I am not sure if this is possible if my desktop computer is not of windows 7, only my laptop is. If no, is there any other methods to manage the sharing of printer?

Thank you for your time.

 

[arsenalbates]

As you suggested to start with is the way i do it and no home group is only for machines running on windows 7 (so both would have to be windows 7) however i think that this is only a windows 7 term for the basic file and printer sharing over the network to make the connection easier for non experenced users.

This is a link to some free software to setup a printer to be used over a network and even the internet !. PrinterShare® Print it anytime, anywhere! FREE Download software!, the down side is you can only print 20 pages for free then you have to pay something like 9 dollars a month.

However I think that you should create a simple ink between the two computers and under devices choose your printer and select share like you would with a folder. After this you may have to install the printers drivers if they are not found automatic.

Then when you want to print something, providing the remote pc and printer is on you should just select the networked printer from the printer drop down list.