Late to the party, but will drop my two cents over MS Windows HomeGroup's early grave.
My comment at https://www.ghacks.net/2017/12/20/windows-10-microsoft-retires-homegroup/
Late to the party, but will drop my two cents over HomeGroup's early grave.
1. The general thoughts.
1.1. The overall idea was truly great.
1.2. The implementation seems to be shaky. In that sad recent decade approach: “It just works”, and when it does not - “See our advertisements, it just works!”
1.3. Personally I think many of issues were due to heavy and unclear WS-Discovery specs and total lack of diagnostic tools in Windows. Why could not they just stick with ZeroConf/Bonjour specs? NIH-syndrome AKA “Fatal flaw”. Today it is network printer setups similarly break due to WSD glitches.
1.4. Lack of documentation and inability of non-Windows computers/phones to join HomeGroups even in some reduced functionality mode. Even pre-Win7 Windows also were not given this option.
1.5. Lack of easy joining (yes!), just compare with “pairing mode” in Bluetooth and Wi-Fi.
2. Now, about your advices “it always was there”.
2.1. “…Advanced sharing and create a share of the folder. Then you go to the Security tab”
Now, try to explain this by phone to about 70yr man recovering from a stroke. No, he does not have Windows-geek in family.
2.2. “make sure ‘Everyone’ is in the list of usernames, edit it, and tick ‘Full control’”
Are you really sure this to be sane advice? This alone sounds a show-stopper to me.
2.3. “…you will need to supply the name of a logon user on the ‘server’ machine, and the password…”
Simply? Really? First of all, how would you supply “user on server” instead of “user on client”? \\-convention? what about families lacking a dedicated Windows geek?
Second, what is the “server” machine? How does “my red laptop my daughter presented my last year” or “that gray box we have in kitchen” translate into it?
Third, what if the “server” machine owner would NOT give away user password to other peers? Just for them to not use the desktop of his machine. Would you circumvent it by fine-tuning of fine-grain grants for that user account? Without a dedicated Windows geek? On Windows Home Basic or even Windows Starter? Well, they would just say “no” and “brign the thumb drive”.
…of course if Microsoft finally would make Windows/NT Domain free for family use in every OEM windows starting with Starter Edition it would all become much easier. But they do not.
2.4. "Note that it only seems to work if the logon user is a ‘Local’ account, not a Microsoft one."
...and since Microsoft with every update makes it more and more complex and hidden to create non-Microsoft account one may be sure it will not work for families without a dedicated Windows geek, who would manage to post-factum create such an extra user account.
Late to the party, but will drop my two cents over HomeGroup's early grave.
1. The general thoughts.
1.1. The overall idea was truly great.
1.2. The implementation seems to be shaky. In that sad recent decade approach: “It just works”, and when it does not - “See our advertisements, it just works!”
1.3. Personally I think many of issues were due to heavy and unclear WS-Discovery specs and total lack of diagnostic tools in Windows. Why could not they just stick with ZeroConf/Bonjour specs? NIH-syndrome AKA “Fatal flaw”. Today it is network printer setups similarly break due to WSD glitches.
1.4. Lack of documentation and inability of non-Windows computers/phones to join HomeGroups even in some reduced functionality mode. Even pre-Win7 Windows also were not given this option.
1.5. Lack of easy joining (yes!), just compare with “pairing mode” in Bluetooth and Wi-Fi.
2. Now, about your advices “it always was there”.
2.1. “…Advanced sharing and create a share of the folder. Then you go to the Security tab”
Now, try to explain this by phone to about 70yr man recovering from a stroke. No, he does not have Windows-geek in family.
2.2. “make sure ‘Everyone’ is in the list of usernames, edit it, and tick ‘Full control’”
Are you really sure this to be sane advice? This alone sounds a show-stopper to me.
2.3. “…you will need to supply the name of a logon user on the ‘server’ machine, and the password…”
Simply? Really? First of all, how would you supply “user on server” instead of “user on client”? \\-convention? what about families lacking a dedicated Windows geek?
Second, what is the “server” machine? How does “my red laptop my daughter presented my last year” or “that gray box we have in kitchen” translate into it?
Third, what if the “server” machine owner would NOT give away user password to other peers? Just for them to not use the desktop of his machine. Would you circumvent it by fine-tuning of fine-grain grants for that user account? Without a dedicated Windows geek? On Windows Home Basic or even Windows Starter? Well, they would just say “no” and “brign the thumb drive”.
…of course if Microsoft finally would make Windows/NT Domain free for family use in every OEM windows starting with Starter Edition it would all become much easier. But they do not.
2.4. "Note that it only seems to work if the logon user is a ‘Local’ account, not a Microsoft one."
...and since Microsoft with every update makes it more and more complex and hidden to create non-Microsoft account one may be sure it will not work for families without a dedicated Windows geek, who would manage to post-factum create such an extra user account.