Workgroup vs Homegroup

[ibshaw]

Hi, is there any basic difference between a Workgroup that I was familiar with in XP and a Homegroup in Win 7 ? All of my PCs are now Win7 64bit and am having problems getting them all connected and seeing each other - in XP it was a doddle.
One example was I tried to setup a HG on one machine and it gave me a password but because I decided to do it later when I had more time, I did not take a note of it then when I went back to do it, I did not know it ?? Is the pw stored somewhere to retrieve it again ?

Any help or a link to a tutorial would be appreciated.

Thanks.

 

[logicearth]

Yes you can retrieve the password again by going into Homegroup's settings. Or you can make your own.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/43961-homegroup-create.html

 

[Roderunner]

I'm one of the many who could not get Homegroup to work on 2 Win7 H Prem pc's, so started using 'Network' sharing. Here's how, View attachment File Sharing Settings.pdf

 

[ibshaw]

Thanks guys for your replies - I will look into these instructions and post back.

Roderunner - where did you get the Scotland flag ? when I joined, only one available was the union jack

 

[seavixen32]

Microsoft HomeGroup tutorial here: HomeGroup from start to finish - Help & How-to - Microsoft Windows

If all your computers have Windows 7, just set up a HomeGroup on one of them and make a note of the password, which you'll need to allow the other computers to join the HomeGroup.

If you're using computers with an operating system other than Windows 7 you need to set up a WorkGroup.

If you want to display the Scottish Saltire go to your profile and use the drop-down list under State/Region.

 

[ibshaw]

Thanks to everyone who replied - will set up as described and post back.

Seavixen - should have sussed how to get the flag thing but, hey, everyone can have a bad day LOL.....

 

[ibshaw]

OK, everything was going OK i.e. created a homegroup then started going round the 4 PCs and tried to join the HG and everything was going great until one PC decided - I can't join cos IPv6 has to be enabled so I goes into wireless adapter properties and it looks enabled already i.e. the box is ticked like in the other PCs - there's obviously something wrong with the one that doesn't work ?

Suggestions to get IPv6 enabled anyone ?.

 

[dsperber]

I don't use Win's Homegroup. Both of my PC's (each dual-boot, WinXP Pro and Win7 Pro) are simply using the old-fashioned original "workgroup"... just as they always did when I was only using WinXP.

Just right-click on Computer, select Properties, and go down to the computer name, domain and workgroup settings area, and click on "change settings" to get the old-fashioned familiar "System Properties" dialog with the famliar "Computer Name" tab.

Your full computer name should be shown there as well as the "workgroup" name that machine belongs to. You should push the "change" button to either rename your computer or change its workgroup. I've not used the "Network ID" button to trigger the wizard to join a domain or workgroup... never had to, probably because I entered both the computer name and workgroup name at the time when Win7 was being installed and I came to that prompt (on both machines).

While there may be some new functionality available with "homegroup" I don't know what that might be nor do I care. I just wanted to be able to get to all partitions (and thus all content, via "full access" in permissions) on either machine from either machine, no matter whether either machine was booted to WinXP or Win7 at the time.

This is 100% provided through "workgroup" and it's available in Win7, and works exactly under Win7 as it did under WinXP... so why not just still use it (I argued with myself)? Hence my decision to just use old-fashioned "workgroup" and be done with it.

And I have 100% of my objectives satisfied. Everything from every partition on either machine is "full-access" available to either machine, no matter where I'm sitting and no matter which OS I'm booted to there at the time. I also have full access to either of my two printers (each one USB-hosted as "shared" by the machine to which it is connected) from either machine, again, 100% exactly as it was when purely under WinXP with "workgroup".

Yes... there is that mystical "homegroup password" that gets generated at Win7 install time that you're supposed to write down, but can be re-obtained after installation if you have another machine that wants to be part of the same homegroup (they all must enter the same password, I think). But why get involved at all??? Ordinary simple old-fashioned "workgroup" still is available and still works perfectly to provide exactly what I am looking for.

 

[ibshaw]

OK, dsperber, you've convinced me. I am thinking same as you that Homegroup is just the Win7 equivalent of workgroup with a new name - OK it may have other things that it can do but like you all I want is what workgroup gave me so thats what I am going to do cos am getting fed up trying to enable IPv6 when it appears to be already.

So, thanks for taking the time to reply - its back to workgroups for me !!!

Thanks again - I appreciate it.