Find the printer’s online button and press it.

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Chapter 4: Sharing Your Files and Printers

5. Click OK to dismiss the File and Print Sharing dialog box.

You return to the Network dialog box.

6. Click OK to dismiss the Network dialog box.

The Network dialog box vanishes, and a Copy Progress dialog box appears and lets you know that Windows is copying the files required to enable File and Print Sharing. If you’re prompted to insert the Windows CD-ROM, do so with a smile. After all the necessary files have been copied, you see a dialog box inform- ing you that you must restart your computer for the new settings to take effect.

7. Click Yes to restart your computer.

Your computer shuts down and then restarts. Your computer may take a minute or so to restart, so be patient. When your computer comes back to life, you’re ready to share files or your printer. While you are in the Network dialog box, do not mess around with any of the other network settings. You can safely change the File and Print Sharing options, but you should leave the rest of the settings on the Network dialog box well enough alone. Sharing a Hard Drive or Folder To enable other network users to access files that reside on your hard drive, you must designate either the entire drive or a folder on the drive as a shared drive or folder. If you share an entire drive, other network users can access all the files and folders on the drive. If you share a folder, network users can access only those files that reside in the folder you share. If the folder you share contains other folders, network users can access files in those folders, too. I recommend against sharing an entire hard drive, unless you want to grant everyone on the network the freedom to sneak a peek at every file on your hard drive. Instead, you should share just the folder or folders containing the specific documents that you want others to be able to access. For exam- ple, if you store all your Word documents in the My Documents folder, you can share your My Documents folder so other network users can access your Word documents. To share a folder on a Windows XP computer, follow these steps:

1. Double-click the My Computer icon on your desktop.

The My Computer window comes to center stage.