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I have a desktop and a laptop (both running windows 7) in my Windows 7 homegroup. The desktop created the homegroup, and the laptop joined it. Both share a few folders.

On the laptop, I have no problem accessing the Desktop's shared folders via the "Homegroup" sidebar button in Windows Explorer.

However, on the Desktop, I get the message No other homegroup computers are currently available in the homegroup screen. However, if I go to the Network page, I can see the other computer and browse its shared media. These shares were made by right clicking and choosing "Share with Homegroup".

I can access the media, so this isn't a big problem, but I'm just confused as to why the Homegroup screen denies the existence of the other computer. Has anybody else encountered and resolved this?

It occurs to me that the homegroup stuff uses IPv6, I think, and so perhaps some networking gear isn't working correctly in between. I don't have this setup anymore, so I can't verify that hunch.

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  • Are the other computers running Windows7? If so, have they "Joined your homegroup" as it were? Are they actually "Sharing anything with the homegroup"?
    – Grizly
    Feb 21, 2010 at 21:41
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    They're both running 7; They've both joined the homegroup, they're both sharing things with the homegroup.
    – McPherrinM
    Feb 22, 2010 at 1:11
  • I know it's going on six years, but was this ever resolved for you? If so, do you remember how? I have a similar issue with my Win10 homegroup.
    – Billy Jo
    Jan 12, 2016 at 13:57

6 Answers 6

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For me, the PC that created the homegroup didn't show up after it had been re-installed, but all others were.

I just removed from Homegroup then re-added. Thats all it took for me.

I don't Think it matters which machine creates the home group, as long as when you're re-adding, or adding a new one, that one of the PC's in that homegroup is active and visible.

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  • Same when I didnt see on windows 10 shared local folder from windows 7 .
    – fdrv
    Dec 6, 2015 at 21:26
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I'm not terribly sure here. Are the computers on the same workgroup? (Control Panel -> System, shows the name and workgroup) I had this issue a lot with the Beta, but I assumed that by the RTM they had worked out the bugs in it.

Believe it or not, the solution that worked for me was simply to recreate the homegroup using a different password. That seems to reset everything about it, causing windows to like you more.

Things to check: Make sure both computers think it's a "Home" network. (Network and Sharing center lets you change the network type.) The homegroup feature needs IPv6 support from your router to work, but they can obviously see each other, so that's not it. Make sure that your laptop is set up with the proper permissions-- you can set advanced Homegroup settings and I think you can turn filesharing and discovery off for "Public" networks; make sure it's on for home networks.

If you use the same login for both computers, it's likely that one of them simply has homegroup sharing turned off. The network computers option doesn't rely on homegroup settings at all, and if the login creds were different, would prompt you for a username/pass when trying to access files on the other machine. Homegroup itself is a convenience layer so that you don't need to do that for computers you trust.

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I've had problems with 1 Desktop with manually assigned IP address, the other desktop on DHCP from the router. If you manually assign a DNS server when manually assigning the Ip address, different from the actual router DNS assignation, the other PC's can see the main desktop through Network icon, but not through Homegroup. All PC's in the Homegroup MUST be on DHCP from the router. Restart all PC's and set the homegroup up from scratch after ensuring all PC's are on DHCP - NOT manually assigned addresses.

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    Do you know where documentation of this can be found? I have one PC with a manually assigned IP address, and another with a DHCP address. The DHCP-addressed PC can access the Homegroup-shared resources of the manually-addressed PC if "logged in". It'd be a nuisance to switch to DHCP addressing for the manually-addressed PC.
    – bgvaughan
    Sep 27, 2011 at 16:21
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Try removing the homegroup, restarting the PC and recreating the homegroup with same name and other settings.

Don't choose "I am connected directly and others are in my network"; choose "all in same network." No one should be host or client.

After doing that, enable remote access, so you can have access to other PCs for their files and for full control.

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This article may be able to help if you have "Microsoft Security Essentials" installed:

http://www.7tutorials.com/fix-problem-homegroup-computers-not-being-available

Essentially, it tells you to uncheck the "Enable Network Inspection System" in that program's settings under "Real-time protection".

Otherwise (like in my case), it is most likely your firewall and homegroup not playing nice with each other (which is probably a good thing if you think about it...). Try temporarily disabling firewalls on both machines to confirm.

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I realize I'm responding to a very old post but........ I ran into this issue recently. I created a homegroup on my laptop but could not connect to homegroup from my media PC. My laptop was connected directly to a cable modem (where homegroup was created on), the PC was wireless. The wireless PC would not connect/find the homegroup.

A partial solution I found was I unplugged the laptop from the cable modem and connected the laptop to my wireless network. This worked for me. I hope this will help out anyone having the same problem.

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