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You obviously don’t need multiple printers to take prints from multiple PCs at a time. Here’s a really easy to follow guide with which you can easily share your printer from one computer to another.

Choose Your Printer

Having multiple computers in your home or office doesn’t mean you have to purchase quite a few printers, too. If your PCs are connected using a wireless network (or a wired one, for that matter), you can simply share them by turning on Sharing in Windows. To get started, open the Printers and Faxes control panel in Windows XP (simply called Printers in Vista). Right-click on the printer you want to share, and choose Sharing.

Configure the Sharing Properties

In the printer’s Properties menu, the Sharing tab should now come into view. Now you’ll click the radio button beside “Share this printer” and provide the printer a share name that you will make out without difficulty. Click OK when you’re done. After that, the icon in the Printers and Faxes control panel should show a cupped hand on the printer’s icon.

Add the Shared Printer to Other PCs

On each of the computers that you would like to use with the shared printer, you will have to attach the shared printer. Take care each of these machines is connected to your network before opening the Control Panel and selecting the Printers and Faxes (in XP) or Printers (in Vista) control panel. Once it’s open, click “Add a printer” to carry on. On the next screen, select “Add a network, wireless or Bluetooth printer.”

Complete the Sharing Setup

Windows will automatically search your network for any shared printers and show its finds in the “Select a printer” window. You should view your recently shared device listed. (If you don’t, then there may be a problem with you network settings then you should first troubleshoot your home network for solutions. Select it and then click Next. For the vast majority of printers, Windows will automatically download the appropriate driver for you at this point, if it’s not already on your system. Your shared printer will now come out in your Printers and Faxes (or Printers) control panel, and should also show as an option from within the Print menus of all your applications. From here on out, the most difficult part of printing over your network should be walking over to the printer to take hold of your documents.

Additional Note: That installs the printer only for the user currently logged in.

• You will need to repeat the process for each user or:
• Click Start–Settings–Printers and Faxes.
• Double click Add Printer to open the Add Printer Wizard. Click Next.
• Click the Local Printer radio button. Click Next.
• Click Create a new port and choose Local Port from the drop down menu.
• In the Enter a Port Name box type: hostnameprintersharename (e.g. 123ABCHPLJ4100).
• Choose Printer from list.
• Create name for printer in Printer Name box.