HomeGroups are a new edition to the Windows ecosystem as of Windows 7. They’re intended to (and succeed at) greatly reducing the frustration experienced by users who want to easily share files between computers as well as share printers with the entire network. Let’s take a look at the state of home networking and how it has evolved.
NetBIOS, a local area network communication API, was introduced in 1983 by IBM and an implementation of it was created by Microsoft in 1985. Although time-tested the API wasn’t without some frustrating shortcomings, including a tendency for computers on the network to get out of sync (one machine might see all four computers and the printer on the network, another might see three computers and no printer) and the sort of obtuseness in practical application that made it much better suited for a commercial environment with an IT staff than for a fluid home environment maintained by users which may have no particular computer expertise. From 1985 until the introduction of Windows 7 the Windows file sharing methodology was built upon this decades old framework.
The new method of sharing doesn’t abandon everything about the old Windows networking methods, however. The NetBIOS underpinnings have been removed and replaced with a new peer-to-peer style networking tool called Peer-to-Peer Graphing. This new Peer-to-Peer method makes it easy for all the computers in the HomeGroup to stay in sync with each other. The mechanism for actually sharing files has stayed the same just with some revisions and polishing; Server Message Block (SMB) file sharing runs much smoother on the new Peer-to-Peer system.
In addition to restructuring the underpinnings of the sharing system the shift to Windows 7 HomeGroups also ditches the frustrating aspects of managing your network. Unlike in Windows XP, where the choices for file sharing were limited to simple sharing (easy to set up but insecure) or permissions-based sharing (a pain to configure and manage but secure), Windows 7 HomeGroups allows you to easily link computers together with nothing more than a share password. What do you need to make it work and what does it mean for you? Let’s take a look.
The Windows HomeGroup system is designed to make it easy for you to nearly instantly add a computer to your network and start sharing files and printers without having to muck around with extensive permissions or otherwise moonlight as a sys admin in your own house. You no longer need matching workgroups, extensive permission configuration, or any of the other things that made configuring a home network a hassle under earlier versions of Windows. Here the requirements of the HomeGroup system:
- At least one computer running Windows 7 Premium of above—lower versions of Windows 7 can join HomeGroups they just can’t create them.
- Your home network needs to be set as “Home” in the Network and Sharing Center.
- The HomeGroup system is Windows 7 only. Earlier versions of Windows are completely locked out from participating in it because of it’s radical departure from the previous structure of Windows files sharing. This, unfortunately, includes Windows Home Server (WHS 2011 will resolve the incompatibility).
- It’s an all-or-nothing system. Folders are either accessible to the whole HomeGroup or not accessible. You can’t specify that a folder is accessible only to your wife’s computer but not your son’s.
- You can only have one HomeGroup per network. You can’t overcome the permission issue by making, for example, a Grownups and Kids HomeGroup or sub-group for house guests.
