Windows 10 May 2019 Update: The Missing Manual

Chapter 19. Sharing Files on the Network

Almost every Windows machine on earth is connected to the Mother of All Networks, the one we call the internet. But most PCs also get connected, sooner or later, to a smaller network—some kind of home or office network.

If you work at a biggish company, then you probably work on a domain network—the centrally managed type found in corporations. In that case, you won’t have to fool around with building or designing a network; your job, and your PC, presumably came with a fully functioning one (and a fully functioning geek responsible for running it).

Within your home or small office, though, you can create a simpler network that you set up yourself. Your PCs are connected either by Ethernet wires or over a wireless Wi-Fi network.

Being on a network means you can share all kinds of stuff among the various PCs that are connected:

• Files, folders, and disks. No matter what PC you’re using on the network, you can open the files and folders on any other networked PC, as long as the other PCs’ owners have made those files available for public inspection. That’s where file sharing comes in, and that’s what this chapter is all about.

  The uses for file sharing are almost endless. It means you can finish writing a letter in the bedroom, even if you started it downstairs at the kitchen table—without having to carry a flash drive around. It means you can watch a slideshow drawn from photos on your spouse’s PC somewhere else in the house. It means your ...