All,I worked a bit with the Homegroup and can't see much future for it given the type of home users I encounter as an outside tech support person, because it requires Windows 7 for all who want join the Homegroup.What a typically see in a home usersituation is something like this:Dad - gets the oldest desktop PC because he is usuallyat work and doesn''t need (or get) much machine.It could be as old as Windows 2000 or some version of XP.Mom - may have a desktop with XP or perhaps an underpowered laptop in the kitchen (because it fits there) and it may have Vista.Male Kid 1 - if pre-teen or teen will have own laptop, usually XP or probably Vista, great for chat and games.Female Kid 2 - if pre-teen or teen will have own MacBook with stickers and decals on the lid.Given that most families keep various Windows machines for YEARS I doubt you will ever get a household to have enough Windows 7 machines at the same time to get the benefits of the Homegroup setting.So, Homegroup should either accommodate earlier versions of Windows, or at least Vista with an add-on, or this will be an unused application.Thoughts? Comments?Gib

I agree wholeheartedly.

I have installed windows 7 to play with, the best bit created a new netwok, it could see all my other computers on the network brillant, accept thatthe other computers on the network cannot see or talk back to it, now then can i rename homegroup so its the same as my network, in which case How, i've fiddled with it abit to no avail, so do i have to rename my own network to homegroup to get them talking, played some more got fedup went to bed regards don

Here am am, two years after my original post disparaging the HOMEGROUP feaure. So I'm back to report on my actual, in-the-field experience with HOMEGROUP since my original post. Initially, as expected, in a home situation the HOMEGROUP was often useless as it was only on the sole new Windows 7 machine and the oddball mix of other PC's never would connect with this feature. Over time however, I had several installations, including commercial applications where there were two or more Windws 7 machines and the HOMEGROUP was wanted to connect them locally. The setup had the ususal bumps, and I still don't understand why the local network has to be called HOME rather than something else such as WORKGROUP or the like. Once set up, it did provide local connectivity and file sharing and it was easier to set up than the Windows XP and Windows versions of earlier days. *However* I did have several callbacks over time that the local shared connection was no longer seen, and all attempts at repair and reconfiguring did not work. I had to start from scratch and re-install the HOMEGROUP, set up the passwords, etc., etc. So overall, the HOMEGROUP works, but I found it was no more reliable than the sharing done under previous Windows versions. Anyone have similar experiences they could share? Gib