Share Files and Folders Over the Network

Yes, you got the right page to get this task done. You must be looking for the way to share your important files or to share folder over network.

Sharing your data is easy in Windows operating system. In Windows, Microsoft provides an option to share files and folders over the network. I will help you to share your files or folder in your network.

Sharing any of your file and folder over a network is another feature of Windows. If you are using more than one computer in an office or home network, you can easily share your files and folder from one computer and access it from second or multiple computers those are available in the same network.

The internet is not necessary for sharing files and folders over the network in Windows PC’s. You can share it in a local network.

Note: There is only one condition; your computers should be on the same network to share an access

How to Share a Folder over the Network?

Though, there are several methods to share folder over network. Hereby, in this post I will show you the easiest way to share a folder.

Even, you can share the entire drive to give access to another computer in the same network. However, make sure, whenever you share a folder over the network, you are sharing all sub-folders and files in the shared folder.

The following steps will work with Windows 7, 8.1 & Windows 10.

Make Network Sharing Settings

Before we start, we need to check Computer name of machine by which we are going to share the file or folder or a particular drive.

To check machine’s identity, open Windows command prompt and type hostname. This will show you the machine name that we need at last.

[Read: How to Open Command Prompt Admin in Windows?]

Step 1. Follow below steps for check sharing wizard:

• Press Win + R to open Run dialog box
• Type control folders and click OK
• This will open Windows folder options in Windows 7 and File Explorer Options in Windows 8.1 & 10
• Click on View Tab then, scroll bit down to make sure “Use sharing Wizard (recommended)” option is checked

Step 2. Now open Windows Network and Sharing Center.

• To open this, launch Run dialog box again with Win + R
• Copy or type following command control.exe /name Microsoft.NetworkAndSharingCenter and click OK
• Navigate to the left pane and click on Change advanced sharing settings

Step 3. In this window, you will see the option to change sharing options for different network profiles. As you see in below image for Private, Guest or Public and All Networks.

Expand one by one and finish below task:

• Turn on network discovery for your private or public network.
• Need to Turn on File and Printer Sharing for your private or public network.
• Turn on Public folder sharing if you want to share items in the Public folder
• Turn on or off password protected sharing. If you Turn on, it will ask for system user ID and password of the machine from you have shared folder. Recommend you to keep it turn off.

Click on Save Changes once selected above options.

By doing the above steps, your machine is on a network and discoverable on a network with other computers.

Share Folder using Sharing Properties

Step 1. Go to the folder that you want to share over the network or you can create new folder to share files or even you can share the entire system drive.

• For instance, i will pick a folder named Software, which i am going to share to my local network.
• Right-click on the folder that you want to share, select Properties

Step 2. Folder Properties will open on your screen. Follow below steps now:

• Select Sharing Tab
• Click on Advanced Sharing…
• Tick mark the check box of Share this folder
• Click Permissions
• Define permissions as per your requirement.

Click on Apply and OK to close permissions window. Again, click Apply and OK to close Advance-sharing screen and get back to folder properties.

Now there is a network path created of the selected folder that you want to share over the local network.

Click on Share button and a Network access window will open on your screen. From the drop-down, select Everyone or desired option as per your requirement and then, click on Share button.

By above task you have successfully shared your folder over the network and it will be accessible to others to whom you have shared (by option individual or everyone).

Finally, you may access from another computer that is on the same network

• Open File Explorer by using Win + E
• Click on the Network folder from the left pane
• From the given list of network computers, open the network PC and you will see the shared folder there

[Read: How to Create Network Connection Shortcut to Desktop?]

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