The whole point of joining a Homegroup is sharing - giving and receiving
access to your friends pictures, libraries or printers. This page will help
you create and troubleshoot Windows 8 Homegroups.
My initial reaction to Homegroup was frustration.
While years of configuring Microsoft desktops meant that I could setup
Workgroups on auto-pilot, creating and joining a Homegroup seemed
like learning a foreign language. My conclusion: this is a rare case of the less you know in advance, the easier it is to
setup a Windows 8 Homegroup.
Remember that only Windows 8 and Windows 7 machines have the ability to join a
Homegroup.
Vista and older Microsoft operating systems can connect to a Window 8
machine, but only through Workgroup settings, which require a separate configuration
setting in the System section of your Control Panel.
Imagine the scenario: it's a home network with one Windows 8 tablet
and two Windows 7 desktops. One user needs to take charge; they need
to create, or initialize, the Homegroup. The practicalities are
straightforward just navigate to the Network and Sharing section
of the Control Panel.
Crucial point: Write down, or copy and paste the password, because the other
machines need it to join the Homegroup. Incidentally, this is fundamentally different
from a Workgroup where no passwords are involved at this stage.
Once the leader creates the Homegroup, the other users fire up their Control Panels, navigate to
the Network and Internet folder and join the Homegroup using the
password from the first computer. Any problem, go back to the
Control Panel on the original machine, and get a copy of the password.
To configure who can see one of your folders, right-click and select 'Share
with'; then select your option, Read / Write or Specific people, see
screenshot to the right. Perhaps a better way, at least to begin with
is tick boxes in the homegroup settings in the Control Panel, see below.
My 'ah-ha' moment was realizing that each user account on each computer
is potentially a member of the Homegroup. To my way of thinking this
was a different philosophy from a domain or workgroup where an administrator
does the sharing for all the users of a machine.
What threw me into confusion was that in a Workgroup each machine joins
once, and any shares affect all users of that machine. Whereas in a
Homegroup each user is in charge of their own shares. So it's a
personal responsibility to decide which personal folders,
or 'Libraries' to share; a tick in the box means a resource is available
for other Windows 8 users in the Homegroup to view.
This new Homegroup logic of sharing is apparent when you launch the
Explorer, once you find and expand the Homegroup you see the icons
representing users shares rather than being machine centric.
Incidentally, unlike a Workgroup there is no ten-user restriction on the
size of a Homegroup.
Joining a Mixed Windows 7 and Windows 8 Homegroup
This worked seamlessly for me. I copied the password from my
Windows 7 machine (Control Panel, Network, Homegroup), pasted into my
Windows 8 Homegroup. Then I shared out my Music and Documents.
It was a thrill and a relief that they appeared on my Windows 7 machine
Homegroup. I could also see the reverse, the Windows 7 Homegroup
members on my Windows 8 machines.
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Since the vehicle for this sharing is the local network rather than the
internet, there is less need for stringent security.
In my opinion you have to start with degree of trust and respect, or else
there is no point in creating a Homegroup. For instance, if you know
the passwords of the other users in the house; you could logon locally.
That is not to say you should ignore security, but more to suggest that you
set permissions to control accidental over-write or delete errors.
After all, a determined local user could just gain physical access to any
machine in the house.
Each Workgroup can be given a distinctive name, however, the singular
name Homegroup is hard-coded, therefore, please avoid overthink and don't
worry about changing it to a special name.
Another important principle is it's up to each individual to go through
the Control Panel configuration procedure before their Pictures, Music and Libraries are
visible in the Homegroup. Because of Windows 8's auto-detect ability,
all they need is to get the Homegroup password from the first computer.
As for viewing other people's shared folders, launch Windows Explorer and
seek out the Homegroup folder, which is just above the Computer and Network
icons. On the screenshot you can see that Guy and Pauline have joined
the Homegroup on the Jasmine Windows 7 machine.
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Troubleshooting Windows 8 Homegroup problems falls into three categories,
Newbie errors, configuration mistakes and bizarre stuff.
Newbie errors: Forgotten the password? Type Homegroup in the Search dialog box.
Select: 'View or print the homegroup password'.
Homegroups only works if you have Windows 7 or later operating system,
sadly for Vista you would need a Workgroup. Curiously, you need a
second user to see Homegroup working, in reality you also need to setup
Homegroup on a second machine.
You cannot setup a Windows Homegroup with either Windows 8 Starter, or Home Basic.
Yet bizarrely, these cheaper editions can join an existing Homegroup created
in Home Premium or Ultimate.
Another
restriction is that while Windows 8 computers that are part of a domain can join a
Homegroup they cannot share their printers or folders. What this means
in practice is that if you take a domain-joined laptop home, it can join the
Homegroup, the benefit being you can now access files on your home computer,
however, other no home computers can access shared (company) folders on the
laptop.
Four Configuration Mistakes: Check Your Computer's Location
Homegroup will only work if you configure the computer's
current location to be: Private network. Check
in the
Control Panel, Network and Sharing Center that the active network is not
'Unidentified' or 'Public network', but 'Private
network'
see screenshot.
You cannot setup more than one Homegroup per subnet. Thus if you needed
to subdivide the computers you need to configure different IP Addresses
e.g. 192.168.1.x. And then 192.1.168.2.x.
Synchronize the computer clocks. Networking problems seem to mushroom when
computers timings are out of synchrony. Homegroup is one technology
that relies on computers' time to be in step.
Wireless networks are notorious for intermittent errors, see if an
Ethernet wired
connection solves this Homegroup problem.
Public Folder Sharing Must Be Turned On If you still cannot
get your Windows 8 Homegroup working, check the 'Advanced settings for sharing'.
To do this navigate to the usual Control Panel, Network, Homegroup folder.
Next scroll down to
'Other Homegroup actions', now click on 'Change advanced sharing settings'.
As you examine the radio buttons make sure that Public folder sharing is
turned on.
Password Problems - Enable IPv6 Homegroup uses IPv6 for multicast discovery. If you get error code 0x80632094 when you try and
enter a valid password, then check that the IPv6 protocol is checked in the
NIC properties. Network and Sharing Center, Change adapter
connections, right-click and examine Properties for IPv6. You could
also try this registry method:
Add a DWORD,
DisabledComponents with a value 0xffffffff,
this disables all IPv6 components. Restart
the computer now edit
0xffffffff to 0. This enables
IPv6.
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More Troubleshooting of Windows 8 Homegroup Problems
Error code 0x80630801 Windows cannot set up a homegroup on this
computer. Troubleshoot the Homegroup Service, they begin with
'Peer'. Specifically, see what happens when you try to restart 'Peer
Networking Grouping'.
Navigate to this folder
\Windows\ServiceProfiles\LocalService\AppData\Roaming\PeerNetworking
Now delete a file called: idstore.sst (The extension may be
hidden).
Reboot
Re-join the homegroup.
Security Settings Investigate Group Policy problems. Either with
Windows 8 gpedit.msc or the little
brother, secpol.msc.
Bizarre Stuff For more intractable problems call for the Homegroup troubleshooter,
which can piggy-back the network trouble-shooters if required. If that
fails then search, or post your scenario in a good forum such as
TechNet Windows forum.
Original research by Paul DeBrino on a Windows 7 Homegroup. Tested by Guy
Thomas on Windows 8 Homegroup.
After many frustrating hours of trying to get Windows HomeGroup to work
as desired, I have abandoned it altogether and, hence, disabled HomeGroup on
all computers in my household. In conclusion, it's my opinion that HomeGroup
is a "black & white" feature, severely limited by two sharing options: FULL
or READ-ONLY for ALL user accounts, across ALL computers in the HomeGroup.
Consequently, in a household where one wishes to provide granular / limited
sharing, HomeGroup is NOT the solution.
I adopted the following solution which, for me, was rather simple and
effective, achieving the desired results.
In my home, there are several computers. "SOURCE" refers to our central
computer where "X:\top-folder-to-share" resides. "CLIENT" refers to all
other computers in my home. I desired to share the aforementioned folder
with family members, as well as with myself, while logged into any CLIENT.
Neither SOURCE nor CLIENT are part of a HomeGroup. Each family member's
account (including my own) is defined locally at SOURCE and is configured as
a "limited" account. At any given CLIENT, the owning family member's account
is defined and configured as "limited".
To clarify, not every family member's account is defined on every CLIENT.
All computers (SOURCE, CLIENTS) have UAC fully engaged and the built-in
administrator account has been renamed consistently across all computers,
allowing the admin to have full access to all systems from any CLIENT.
For example, accounts exist as such:
On SOURCE: MyPersonalAccount, Spouse, Child, RenamedAdminAcct
On CLIENT-1: MyPersonalAccount, Spouse, RenamedAdminAcct
On CLIENT-2: MyPersonalAccount, Child, RenamedAdminAcct
On SOURCE, I created "limited" accounts (Spouse, Child) and
assigned the same Username and Password as they use at their own CLIENT.
Next, on SOURCE’s folders that I wished to share, I enabled
Sharing and (under Advanced Sharing) set the Share Permissions to
"Authenticated Users" and "Administrators" (the latter as a standard,
even though redundant), and also removed "Everyone" as a standard
practice.
Next, for each of the Shared folders on SOURCE, I set the
rights / permissions / folder ACLs to reference the local accounts
(Spouse, Child) and assigned READ-ONLY rights. This, of course, was my
desired setting and should be set according to one's specific
environment. Note that MyPersonalAccount has full READ-WRITE permissions
to all of the resources being shared at SOURCE.
In detail: I set Share+ACL permissions for X:\top-folder-to-share\ as
follows and allowed it to propagate to all sub-directories: -- OWNER:
Administrators (group)
-- SHARE permissions (under Share With > Specific People):
** REMOVED "Everyone" ** FULL: Authenticated Users,
Administrators
-- ACLs (under Folder Properties > Security tab > Advanced button):
** FULL CONTROL (this folder, subfolders and files): Administrators, System,
MyPersonalAccount. ** READ-&-EXECUTE (this folder,
subfolders and files): Spouse, Child. ** REMOVED
"Authenticated Users", since I didn't want it to conflict with these
user-specific settings.
With these simple changes, resources are now shared as expected and I am
no longer wasting time trying to unravel the mess that Microsoft's HomeGroup
created in their effort to "simplify" sharing.
»
Summary of Windows 8 Homegroup
If you are an old-timer with Workgroups, take the time to re-program your
brain and synchronise with the Homegroup way of sharing. If you are
new to computer sharing concentrate on the Homegroup password needed for the
second machine.
Troubleshooting Homegroup problems falls into three categories, Newbie
errors, configuration mistakes and bizarre stuff. Homegroup is a new
feature of Windows 8. You can clearly see how it has evolved from
Workgroups; once you tune in to it's ways and philosophy then you can see
that Homegroup is a smart technology to share files on a small network.
Windows 8 Homegroup is dedicated to connecting to printers and other users'
pictures, music and other files.
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