How to Install a Network printer in Windows 10

Before you connect to a printer installed on a Network, it must be shared to allow access to Network users. So in this post, before we look at the steps required to install a network printer in windows 10 based system, I will briefly explain the right procedure to share a printer so that other users are able to install the printer on their computers irrespective of the version of the operating system they are using.

Share a Printer in Windows 10

Open the Control panel and navigate to Devices and Printers. Now under the Printers, right-click on the printer you want to share. Now click on printer settings. From the various menu tabs, click on sharing and make sure the radio buttons on the following options are selected.

• Share this printer
• Render Print jobs on Client computers.

Now on the bottom of the screen, there is a button for Additional Drivers. If there are users in a network who are working on 32-bit or 64-bit operating systems or earlier versions of windows, you can click on additional drivers to install compatible drivers for a shared printer.

Install a Shared Printer on a Network

Option-1

Navigate to control panel>Devices and Printers> Add a Printer

The Wizard will start looking for the shared devices, if none is found, click on “The printer that I want is not listed”.

In the next screen, select the option that says “Select a shared printer by name” and click on Browse. It will automatically open the network showing all the computers on the network.

Now click on the computer name or the server on which the printer is installed. It will show the printer installed and shared on that PC. Click on the printer and press Next and then Finish to complete the printer installation.

Option-2

In this method, instead of the opening control panel, you can directly open the Network from the desktop or file explorer. This is a shortcut method just right-click on the printer and click connect.

Conclusion

Sharing a printer in a Network environment not only saves a lot of investment on buying separate printers for different users, but it also saves a lot of precious time in communication or sending files to another computer for printing purposes. Are you using a shared printer in the windows 10 system? Do let us know if you have any other queries.