Share Your Printer Over a Home Network Using Windows XP

After I installed my new printer on the computer, I wanted to use it from other computers. I even wanted to print from my laptop computer, sitting on the patio, connecting to the network with a wireless NIC. Before I could do that, I had to share the printer. Windows XP doesn't automatically share printers, which is a good thing when you don't want to share your toys.
To share the printer, I opened the Printers and Faxes folder on the computer that was connected to my printer.
To open the Printers and Faxes folder
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Click Start and then click Control Panel.
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Click Printers and Other Hardware, and then click Printers and Faxes.
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In the Printers and Faxes folder, I clicked the printer's icon and, in the tasks pane, I clicked Share This Printer.
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I opened the printer's Properties dialog box, and clicked on the Sharing tab.
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I clicked Share Name, and then clicked OK.
That's it—the printer was immediately available for other computers to use.
Now that I had a network printer, I was ready to connect to it and print from other computers on the network.
To connect to the printer
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I opened Control Panel, and clicked Printers and Other Hardware.
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I clicked Add a Printer.
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Instead of adding a local printer, though, I clicked Printer Connection and then browsed the network for the printer.
The whole process took less than a minute before I was printing to the network printer as though it was connected to the computer.