How To: Enable File & Printer Sharing Windows/Surface RT

 November 10, 2012
Posted by Rashed Talukder

There are some features that don’t come enabled or Microsoft says isn’t possible on a Windows RT or Microsoft Surface RT tablet. You may have already mapped your SkyDrive to a drive letter for your tablet, but now you want to share the files, folders, or printers available on your Windows RT or Surface RT tablet and didn’t see an option. Well, luckily you found this work around guide where I show you how to enable file and folder sharing on your Windows RT or Surface RT.

Enabling File & Folder Sharing on Windows RT

    1. After you’ve loaded up your Microsoft Windows RT or Surface RT tablet, at the Start Screen, just start typing “Administrative Tools”. Then click “settings”, then click “Administrative Tools
    2. Open up “Services
      How to enable File, Folder, and Printer sharing in Microsoft Windows RT or Surface RT
    3. Right click (or do a long press on the touch screen) on “Server
    4. Then from the drop down menu, select “Automatic
    5. Press APPLY
    6. Then, under “Service Status“, press “Start
    7. Press OK. (I would personally restart the Surface RT or Windows RT tablet at this point)
    8. Right click any folder or file in the file browser of your Surface RT, and select Share as, do what you want, click OK
    9. Done

I hope this guide works for you to share your files, folder, and printers on your Surface RT or Windows RT tablet device and access it anywhere. This allows one more step towards making the RT version of Windows be like it’s big brother, Windows 8 Pro.

If this was helpful, please do share. If you had any issues, don’t hesitate to comment and I will do my best to help.

 

Source Credit: Jwelhouse

5 comments

  1. |

    Since you figured this out, maybe you can help me. Just bought a Surface RT and the printer on my home network is not compatible and there are no RT drivers for it. Okay, I get that. But the desktop computer is running Windows 7 and I have a wifi network. Is there any way to print from the Surface via the print sharing on the desktop? If so, how to I set it up? I’m reasonably tech savvy but this is all new, so the more “step-by-step” answer you can give, the better! Thanks so much!

    • |

      Enabling a printer without drivers is a bit more difficult and might not always work. I’ll add that to my list of things to publish. Might work for some…not all.

  2. ST
    |

    After spending an hour on my own trying to figure this out, I stumbled upon your solution! Worked perfectly! I would add to the end of your instructions how to share for those users who don’t (i.e., right click on a drive or folder, go to sharing >> advanced sharing >>> check off “Share this folder”

    Thanks!


  3. […] Services.msc start the server service via the directions in the following link. Hope it works. How To: Enable File & Printer Sharing Windows/Surface RT | Rashed Talukder's Blog and find Server and make the change.   My System Specs You need to have […]

  4. Neal Yaklich
    |

    Yeah.

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