Windows 10 Anniversary Update Bible

CHAPTER 35Using Shared Resources

IN THIS CHAPTER

1. Accessing remote resources
2. Opening documents from remote computers
3. Transferring files between networked computers
4. Using a shared printer
5. Using shared media

Chapters 33 and 34 covered all the basics of setting up and sharing resources on a private home or small business network. This chapter assumes that you've done that. Nothing in this chapter will work until the network is set up, you've turned on network sharing and discovery on each Windows 7, Window 8/8.1, and Windows 10 computer, and you've shared some files on the network.

This chapter looks at how you find and use shared resources from computers within the network. It looks at opening documents from remote resources, moving and copying files between networked computers, using remote printers, and ways of using shared media.

UNC Paths

Before diving too deeply into methods for accessing network resources, let's take some time to delve into a topic that will help you navigate network resources more easily — UNC paths.

UNC stands for Universal Naming Convention. A UNC path is expressed in this form:

\\MachineName\PathName

MachineName is the name of the computer and PathName is a folder path on that computer. For example, assume that your network includes a computer named SNOOPY that you use as a file server. On that computer is a folder that you have shared as SharedDocs. Within that SharedDocs folder is a subfolder named Contracts. The UNC path to the Contracts folder ...