I have the reverse working. I have a printer on my XP mule & it is shared & available to my Win 7 computer. I can't seem to get a scanner to go the other way yet however.

Ian

Win 7 does have a feature called 'Homegroup' which you are describing. Homegroup is an easy way to setup a home network as long as all units are Win7. While convenient, the standard way of networking is still available for all MS products.

We can talk you thru setting up the network if you are interested.

Basically, all computers have to be assigned the same workgroup. 'Homegroup' is Win7's default name of a workgroup.
Networking a printer depends on if it is a networkable printer or USB printer.
Essentially a networkable printer has an IP address and a USB printer is defined as 'Printer on Joe's Computer' or something like that.

Let us know your setup and any questions.

James,

That way might work but you are doing it through the router and not using the W7 system.

Under W7 it does not like to share printers unless everything is on W7.

Will take a look at your option... when I have more time! :)

Thx,

Joe

Randy,

Am networked already with one using W7 and the other using XP, but getting the printer to share then work with the laptop using XP is the issue.

Can view and work with drives on the network fine.

Thx,

Joe

Not directly related to this query, but a word of caution.

I installed SP1 for Win7 today. It took my normal version of Win7 and turned it into an eval edition that will expire in March.

Just a word of caution. don't bother, unless you don't mind reinstalling our os. I am kind of ticked off. It should have said that all over the place. I confirmed it was true after it happened.

I see that it is a beta. SP1 is rumored for launch in Q1-2 2011. I learned my lesson with MS betas in Win 95, Win 98 . . .

Ian

Try this link and let me know if it helps you out.

Share Files and Printers between Windows 7 and XP - How-To Geek

What you are trying to do is definitely possible.
On my network I share network printers, USB printers and large scale plotters between XP, Vista and Win 7.

Well, I was having problems with my new drafting computer. I forgot to order a SATA DVD drive. I installed Win 7 Pro with a IDE DVD drive, and setup the MB for IDE. Appearently, you cannot convert to AHCI without reloading the OS.

Today, installed the SATA DVD-RW and reloaded Win-7, man what a difference. Now all I need is a modern Video card (it will arrive thursday!)

AMD Phenon II X6 - 2.8 GHZ (6 core processor)
GIGABYTE 890XA-UD3 Motherboard
4 GB RAM (will be 8 GB on Thursday)
1600MHZ FSB
500 GB SATA 1.5 Drive
POS Mach 64 video card (I thought there was Video on board)
Win 7 Pro

Video card will be replaced with a SAPPHIRE 100254HDMI Radeon HD 4650 1GB 128-bit DDR2 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX. Can't wait to re-run the benchmarks! Then I'll load AutoCad LT 11.

Even with the crappy video card, the benchmark mark on this unit is 30% higher than my brand new Latitude E6500.

Final step will be a replacement monitor...eventually.