by John Gibb

Let’s say PC-A and PC-B are two networked computers. If a Printer, P, is configured in the computer, PC-A, the user of PC-B can print to the printer P by asking the user of PC-A to share it.

Here are the steps the user needs to follow to share the Printer on PC-A:

1. Go to the Printers Folder.

2. Choose the Printer, go to File–>Properties.
3. Click the Sharing tab.
4. Choose the “Share this Printer” and give the printer a share name
   “P-Shared”. Click Ok.

Here are the steps the user needs to print from PC-B using the printer at PC-A:

1. Browse to the Printer shared (P-Shared)

2. Right click and choose Connect to make a printer connection. This will install the printer driver on the machine with the correct printer settings.
3. The user can then print to the Printer from any application on his local machine without having to bother about configuring the printer.

This is also called Point and Print mechanism and is used by administrators for setting up a printer on a server, and asking users to connect to the printer shared from their computers, hence avoiding local printer installations on individual computers.

John Gibb manages http://www.computer-and-printer-reviews.com The site dedicated to computers and printers.