Having trouble with Windows Networking. Some things like printer sharing don't work

Question

I recently had a home network consisting of a Windows 7 Desktop and a Windows 11 Laptop. I had file and printer sharing working in both directions (i.e. I could access files on the laptop from the desktop and vice versa). Recently, my Windows 7 desktop died so I had to buy a new Desktop which had Windows 11.

Currently, here is what's working.

1. I can see the other computers in the Network portion of File Explorer. In other words, on the Desktop I see the Laptop and from the Laptop I can see the Desktop.
2. I can access the files on the Desktop from the laptop by expanding the folder structure in File Explorer. But when I try to expand the folder structure for the Laptop in File Explorer on the Desktop, I am prompted for the user and password. I am not sure what the proper username and password are. This is partly because the user account setup on Windows 11 is totally different than I am used to. Part of the confusion is due to the different ways I "login" to each computer. On the Desktop at login time I am prompted for the password for user Tom. But on the Laptop, I am prompted for a Pin. No userid is mentioned. I'm pretty sure this is at least part of the problem. Edit: In the Users folder on the Laptop,my files are under a name of tgord. On the Desktop, the folder is Tom. But when I go into User accounts on both computers, neither of these users is listed. The only Account is my Microsoft Account. Adding this for context. Edit 2: Correction- When I login on the Laptop, the username is Thomas Gordon (Microsoft Account) and it shows the email that I use to login to my Microsoft account on the web. I have tried responding to the prompt in File Explorer using Thomas Gordon as the user and both my pin and my Microsoft Account password, but both are rejected. Adding to the confusion is that the error message says that either the username or the password is incorrect. I assume this means that they both could be wrong.
3. The other problem is that I have a printer attached to the Desktop and I have activated sharing for this printer. But when I try to add the printer on the Laptop, it can "see" the printer but when I try to add it, it fails. My instincts tell me this is also related to the sharing setup between the computers.

I really need to get this working as well as it did before my old Desktop died.

***Moved from Windows / Windows 11 / Internet and connectivity***

Answer 1

Here is an update to this topic/post:

I am disappointed that although many people have viewed this post, no one has offered assistance. I have been able to resolved the file sharing issue that had to do with password confusion by simply turning off password protection in the File Sharing dialog boxes on the laptop.

But I have still not solved the issue o sharing the printer. The symptoms have not changed (the printer is known to the laptop but attempts to ad the printer fail).

I am attaching a screen shot of the failure in the hopes that some kind soul will help me solve it.

Screen shot below. Any help will be appreciated. The printer is turned on,

Answer 2

Hello

Based on the information you provided, it is recommended that you try the following steps to see if the problem can be solved:

1. Check the running status of the computer printing service where the printer needs to be installed.

Press Win+R and enter services.msc and click OK. Open the service to find Print Spooler, DCOM Server Process Launcher, and RPC Endpoint Mapper, and set their running status to automatic startup.

2. In the Programs and Features of the Control Panel, click Enable or Disable Windows Features: Check SMB 1.0/CIFS File Sharing Support in the pop-up window.

In addition, you can also refer to the following link for troubleshooting.

Guidance for troubleshooting printing issues - Windows Server | Microsoft Learn

Fix printer connection and printing problems in Windows - Microsoft Support

Best regards

Zunhui