I am trying to network my PCs using Windows 11. The new PC does not have "Advanced sharing settings"

Question

I go to Settings > Account> Network & Internet > Advanced network settings > More settings

The old PC has Advanced sharing settings as the first of four items. The new PC does not have that and only has the last 3 items: Data usage, Hardware and connection properties, Network reset.

Where did this go?

All I am trying to do is see if I can use a USB laser printer connected to the old PC with the New PC. This is hours and hours of frustration from constantly changing options and settings, poor and confusing documentation. Is this printer sharing not possible on Windows 11?

Answer 1

Hi,

Thanks for posting here!

In Windows 11, the settings for sharing folders and printers have been moved to a different location compared to previous versions. To share a USB laser printer connected to your old PC with your new PC running Windows 11, you can follow these steps:

1. Connect the USB laser printer to your old PC and make sure it is installed and working correctly on that PC.
2. On your old PC, open the Settings app by clicking on the Start button and selecting the gear icon.
3. In the Settings app, click on "Devices" to open the Devices settings.
4. In the left sidebar, click on "Printers & scanners".
5. Under the "Printers & scanners" section, locate your USB laser printer and click on it.
6. Click on the "Manage" button that appears below the printer's name.
7. In the printer management window, click on the "Printer properties" link.
8. In the printer properties window, go to the "Sharing" tab.
9. Enable the "Share this printer" option and provide a share name for the printer.
10. Click on "Apply" and then "OK" to save the changes.

Now that the printer is shared on your old PC, you can proceed to add it to your new PC running Windows 11. Here's how:

1. On your new PC, open the Settings app by clicking on the Start button and selecting the gear icon.
2. In the Settings app, click on "Devices" to open the Devices settings.
3. In the left sidebar, click on "Printers & scanners".
4. Click on the "Add a printer or scanner" button.

Windows will start searching for available printers. After a moment, it should detect the shared USB laser printer from your old PC.

5. Select the shared printer from the list of detected printers.
6. Click on the "Add device" button to add the printer to your new PC.

After completing these steps, the shared USB laser printer should be available for use on your new PC running Windows 11. Please note that the steps may vary slightly depending on your specific Windows 11 version, but they should provide a general guideline for printer sharing.

Feel free to update if it helps or not, we will help on the issue if that`s still bothering.

Best Regards,

Karlie

Answer 2

Thank you,

I am running Windows 11 on both the old and new PC. The setting are a little different as they fall under Bluetooth & Devices > Printers & scanners.

I checked to see if the old PC had printer sharing on for the printer and it did.

On the new PC I went to: Bluetooth & devices > Printers & scanners > Add a printer or scanner. As before, the printer I want to share did not show up. I clicked on Add Manually and Find a Printer By Other Options. I tried the various selections including Select a shared printer by name. I tried both the \computername\printername and https://computername/printers/pritername/.printer but nothing has worked.

I wonder if having VPNs running on both the old and new PCs causes this problem or if it is something else. I have always found networking Windows PCs to be impossible. I must be missing something.

My fallback is a physical switch that I have on order. I would prefer doing this without more cables!

Answer 3

Hi,

Thanks for the update.

Since you mentioned there`s a VPN deployed, then everything will go hugely different.

I request you to share the net environment first before we figure out the printer connection problem:

1. What kinds of VPN you deployed, and how the VPN allow traffics in your net space?
2. If the printer not even showed, it probably means network flow didn't find your new PC. You can set a ping test between two PC.
3. And the best situation for your scenario I think, is to allocate the old PC ip and never change. Then that new PC could find and next the printer. But it all rely on step 2 passed.

So, please kindly check the net connection between the PCs, it will help to seek the issue further.

Best Regards,

Karlie