One thing for sure is that HomeGroup feature in Windows 7 is great, it allows to easily share printers and files, such as documents, music and videos, with other member of the family in a simple way using your home network. But did you ever have the need to use HomeGroup? If you have one computer in the house the answer probably is not. So in the case you don’t need it anymore, you can disable this feature in Windows 7 and without much difficulty you can enable it back again.
Before making the decision of disabling HomeGroup in Windows 7, you can get more info from this page.
How to disable HomeGroup feature in Windows 7
1. Go to Start, in the search box type homegroup and press Enter.
2. Toward the bottom of the window, click the link Leave the homegroup…
3. The next wizard is going to ask you to confirm that you really want to leave the homegroup and then click Finish.
So far so good, now homegroup is disable, but it is still displaying in the navigation pane.
To remove HomeGroup from the navigation pane in Windows Explorer do the following:
1. Go to Start, in the search box type services.msc and press Enter, or simply go to the Control Panel, then Administrative Tools and double-click Services.
2. Find HomeGroup Listener service from the list and double-click it.
3. Next change the Startup type to Disabled, click the Stop button to stop the service, then click Apply and OK. You are also going to need to disable the HomeGroup Provider service in the same way.
Now you are done. Go back to the Windows Explorer and homegroup should be removed.
HomeGroup in Windows 7 is a great feature and you should learn more about it if you don’t know, but if you want to remove it, you can, and it is not difficult.
How to enable HomeGroup feature in Windows 7
1. You need to enable the two services you stopped once again. Go to the Windows Services as demonstrated in the above steps, find HomeGroup Provider and HomeGroup Listener services and set them from Disabled to Automatic, then click Apply, click the Start button and the OK button — Important: To not receive any Windows error start the HomeGroup Provider first and HomeGroup Listener second –.
2. Go to Start, in the search box type homegroup and press Enter.
3. Now simply click the Create a homegroup button or the Join a homegroup button and follow the wizard.
I hope this tutorial was helpful. If you have any question please leave a comment. Thanks!
Mauro Huculak is a Windows How-To Expert who started Pureinfotech in 2010 as an independent online publication. He has also been a Windows Central contributor for nearly a decade. Mauro has over 15 years of experience writing comprehensive guides and creating professional videos about Windows and software, including Android and Linux. Before becoming a technology writer, he was an IT administrator for seven years. In total, Mauro has over 21 years of combined experience in technology. Throughout his career, he achieved different professional certifications from Microsoft (MSCA), Cisco (CCNP), VMware (VCP), and CompTIA (A+ and Network+), and he has been recognized as a Microsoft MVP for many years. You can follow him on X (Twitter), YouTube, LinkedIn and About.me. Email him at [email protected].