Sharing one HDD and Printer in home

Question

I have two questions

-- I have 3 pc, two xp sp3 and one win 7. Now I have couple of external hard drive and printer and I want them to be accessible to all 3 pcs I have. Can somebody tell me how can I setup this network?

-- My second question is about installing a monitor driver properly. My current setup is I have on desktop with win 7 and two latptop with xp 3. All 3 pcs are connected to KVM switch so that I can switch between diff pcs. Now problem is when I use my desktop on my 25" HP HD monitor it just works, I dont have to change the resolution but when I switch to laptop(xp) then I have to manually change the resolution everytime I switch. Can somebody tell me how can I resolve this issue?

THanks

Answer 1

You can attach to printer and the drives to a computer and the enable Windows' File and Printer Sharing on all of them. This can get complicated because you're mixing versions of Windows, but can be done. There are numerous web tutorials available that have step-by-step instructions for setting up File and Printer Sharing on Windows. Windows 7 may even have a built-in "Wizard" to help you set it up.

As for your second question (which really should have been posted separately), what exactly do you mean by "I have to manually change the resolution everytime I switch"? Change the resolution of WHAT? Most monitors these days will auto-sync to the signal being sent to them.