Windows 11 Networking: Setting Up Shared Folders and Printers on a Home or Office Network

File sharing and printer sharing are two of the most practical things you can do on a local network — yet for many users, getting them working reliably in Windows 11 can feel unnecessarily complex. Between network discovery settings, homegroup replacements, firewall rules, and SMB protocol versions, there are several layers to navigate before everything clicks into place.

This guide walks you through the complete process: from configuring your network profile correctly, to sharing folders with granular permissions, to making a USB-connected printer available to every device on your network. Whether you are setting up a small home office or managing a handful of machines in a micro-business, these steps will get you there without needing a dedicated IT administrator.

If you have not yet activated Windows 11 Professional on your machine, you can pick it up for £18.99 at GetRenewedTech. The Professional edition is recommended for networking tasks as it supports advanced sharing controls and Group Policy — both of which are covered later in this guide.

Understanding Windows 11 Network Profiles

Before sharing anything, Windows needs to know what kind of network you are connected to. The network profile determines which services are discoverable and which firewall rules apply. Windows 11 offers three profiles:

• Private — Used for trusted networks such as your home or office. Network discovery and file sharing are enabled by default. This is the profile you want for sharing folders and printers.
• Public — Used for coffee shops, airports, and other untrusted networks. Sharing features are disabled to protect your machine.
• Domain — Available only on machines joined to an Active Directory domain, managed by your organisation’s IT team.

To check or change your network profile, open Settings → Network & Internet → Wi-Fi (or Ethernet, depending on your connection). Click the name of your connected network and look for the Network profile type setting. Set it to Private for your home or office connection.

If you find that your network keeps reverting to Public, this is typically caused by Windows not recognising your router properly. You can fix this permanently via the Registry:

1. Press Win + R, type regedit, and press Enter.
2. Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\NetworkList\Profiles
3. Find your network’s GUID key (look for the one matching your network name under the ProfileName string value).
4. Change the Category DWORD value to 1 (Private) or 0 (Public).

This registry change persists across reboots and is particularly useful on machines where the Settings UI does not hold the value.

Enabling Network Discovery and File Sharing

Even with a Private network profile, Windows 11 sometimes disables network discovery by default. This prevents other machines from seeing yours in File Explorer’s Network section. Here is how to enable everything you need:

1. Open Control Panel → Network and Sharing Centre → Change advanced sharing settings.
2. Expand the Private networks section.
3. Select Turn on network discovery and tick Turn on automatic setup of network connected devices.
4. Select Turn on file and printer sharing.
5. Click Save changes.

If you want to share files without requiring a password (useful on a trusted home network with family members), expand the All Networks section and select Turn off password protected sharing. On an office network, however, always keep password protection enabled.

Checking That SMB Is Enabled

Windows file sharing relies on the Server Message Block (SMB) protocol. In Windows 11, SMB1 is disabled by default due to significant security vulnerabilities — this is correct behaviour and you should not re-enable it. SMB2 and SMB3 should be active by default, but it is worth verifying.

Open PowerShell as administrator and run:

Get-SmbServerConfiguration | Select EnableSMB1Protocol, EnableSMB2Protocol

You should see EnableSMB1Protocol : False and EnableSMB2Protocol : True. If SMB2 is somehow disabled, enable it with:

Set-SmbServerConfiguration -EnableSMB2Protocol $true -Force

Sharing a Folder with Specific Users

Right-clicking a folder and choosing Share is the quickest method, but it does not give you fine-grained control. Here is the full process using Advanced Sharing, which gives you precise permission control:

1. Right-click the folder you want to share and select Properties.
2. Click the Sharing tab, then click Advanced Sharing.
3. Tick Share this folder.
4. Give the share a name (this is what others will see on the network — it does not need to match the folder name).
5. Click Permissions.
6. By default, the Everyone group has Read access. Remove it if you want controlled access, then click Add to add specific users.
7. Type the username of the person you want to grant access to, click Check Names, then click OK.
8. Set the permission level: Read, Change (Read + Write), or Full Control.
9. Click OK through all the dialogue boxes.

Important: The share permissions you set here work in conjunction with NTFS permissions on the Security tab. If either set of permissions denies access, the user will be blocked. For simplicity, set both to the same level. Click the Security tab, click Edit, and grant the same user the appropriate NTFS permissions.

Accessing a Shared Folder from Another Machine

On the second Windows 11 machine, open File Explorer and look in the Network section in the left panel. Your sharing machine should appear there. If it does not, you can connect directly using its name or IP address:

1. Press Win + R and type \\COMPUTERNAME\ShareName (replacing COMPUTERNAME with the machine’s name and ShareName with your share name).
2. You can also use the IP address: \\192.168.1.50\ShareName

To find the machine’s name, right-click the Start button, choose System, and look for Device name. To find its local IP address, open Command Prompt and run ipconfig — look for the IPv4 Address under your active adapter.

Mapping a Shared Folder as a Network Drive

For frequently accessed shares, mapping them as a persistent drive letter makes access much faster:

1. Open File Explorer, click This PC in the left panel.
2. Click the three-dot menu at the top and select Map network drive.
3. Choose a drive letter (e.g., Z:).
4. Enter the path: \\COMPUTERNAME\ShareName
5. Tick Reconnect at sign-in if you want this to persist across reboots.
6. If you need to connect as a different user (common in office environments), tick Connect using different credentials.

Sharing a Printer Across the Network

Printer sharing allows all computers on your network to send jobs to a single printer that is physically connected to one machine. The machine the printer is attached to must be switched on for others to print.

Step 1: Share the Printer from the Host Machine

1. Open Settings → Bluetooth & devices → Printers & scanners.
2. Click the printer you want to share.
3. Click Printer properties.
4. Click the Sharing tab.
5. Tick Share this printer and give it a share name.
6. Click OK.

Step 2: Connect to the Shared Printer from Another Machine

1. On the second machine, open Settings → Bluetooth & devices → Printers & scanners.
2. Click Add a printer or scanner and wait for Windows to detect printers on the network.
3. If the printer does not appear automatically, click The printer I want isn’t listed.
4. Select Select a shared printer by name and enter: \\HOSTCOMPUTERNAME\PrinterShareName
5. Follow the prompts to install the driver. Windows will usually download this automatically from the host machine.

Troubleshooting Printer Sharing Issues

If the shared printer is not accessible, check the following:

• Firewall blocking print traffic: Open Windows Defender Firewall → Allow an app through firewall → ensure File and Printer Sharing is ticked for Private networks.
• Print Spooler service: Press Win + R, type services.msc, and confirm the Print Spooler service is running and set to Automatic on both machines.
• Driver mismatch: If the second machine runs a different version of Windows (e.g., Windows 10 versus Windows 11), you may need to install additional drivers. On the sharing machine, go to Printer Properties → Sharing → Additional Drivers, and install drivers for other processor architectures.

Using a Dedicated Print Server (NAS or Router)

If you do not want printing to depend on a single machine being switched on, consider using a network-attached print server. Many modern routers include a USB port that functions as a basic print server when you connect a USB printer to it. Alternatively, a small NAS device can serve both files and printers.

For most home offices, though, sharing via a Windows 11 host machine is perfectly adequate — especially if the host is your primary workstation and is usually running.

Advanced: Sharing Folders via PowerShell

For those managing multiple machines or wanting to script their configurations, PowerShell makes folder sharing quick and repeatable. Here is how to create a new share, set permissions, and remove a share:

# Create a new share
New-SmbShare -Name "ProjectFiles" -Path "C:\Shared\Projects" -FullAccess "DOMAIN\Alice" -ReadAccess "DOMAIN\Bob"

# View all current shares
Get-SmbShare

# Remove a share
Remove-SmbShare -Name "ProjectFiles" -Force

This approach is ideal if you are setting up several machines at once or want to document your network configuration as a repeatable script.

Security Considerations for Network Sharing

Sharing folders and printers on a network introduces exposure you should manage carefully:

• Never share drives to Everyone with Full Control. Always specify named users and grant only the access they need.
• Use strong passwords on all user accounts that have access to shared resources. Password-protected sharing is only as good as the passwords themselves.
• Keep Windows updated. Many historical network attacks (including WannaCry) exploited SMB vulnerabilities that were patched in Windows updates. Keeping your machine up to date is the single most effective protection.
• Audit shared resources regularly. Run Get-SmbShare in PowerShell occasionally to review what is being shared and whether any shares are unnecessary.
• Consider a VPN if you need to access network shares remotely. Exposing SMB shares directly to the internet is extremely dangerous and should never be done.

Final Thoughts

Setting up shared folders and printers in Windows 11 is entirely manageable once you understand the relationship between network profiles, SMB, share permissions, and NTFS permissions. The most common cause of frustration is a mismatch between these layers — for example, the share permission allows access but the firewall blocks the connection, or the NTFS permissions are more restrictive than the share permissions.

Work through each layer methodically — network profile, network discovery, SMB, firewall, share permissions, NTFS permissions — and you will have a reliable, secure sharing setup that serves your home or office without ongoing maintenance headaches.

Running Windows 11 Professional? You can get it for just £18.99 at GetRenewedTech — a cost-effective way to unlock the full suite of networking and sharing features covered in this guide.