This is a pretty useful feature to get somebody to print on a printer in a networked environment. Let's say PC A and PC B be two networked computers, If a Printer, P is configured in the computer, PCA, you can print to the printer P by asking the user of the PC A to share it.
Steps to share the Printer on PC A:-
1) Go to the Printers Folder. 2) Choose the Printer, go to File->Properties. 3) Click the Sharing tab. 4) Choose the "Share this Printer" and give the printer a share name
"P-Shared". Click Ok.
The user can print from PC B using the printer by following the below steps:-
1) Browse to the Printer shared (P_Shared)
2) Right click and choose connect to make a printer connection. This will install the printer driver on the machine with the correct printer settings.
3) He/She can then print to the Printer from any application on his local machine without having to bother about configuring the printer.
This is also called Point and Print mechanism and is used by administrators for setting up a printer on a server, and asking users to connect to the printer shared from their computers, hence avoiding local printer installations on individual computers.
About the Author
John Gibb manages http://www.computer-and-printer-reviews.com The site dedicated to computers and printers.