You shared the printer exactly like you were shown, ticked every box, and the other PC still says it cannot connect. In most homes and offices the printer is fine and the sharing steps are fine - one invisible setting is wrong. This guide walks the complete right way, in order, so the share works the first time and keeps working.
Printer sharing fails in patterns. The same handful of mistakes produce almost every 'Windows cannot connect to the printer', 'Access is denied' and 'printer is offline' complaint. The biggest one is invisible: the PC that holds the printer - the server - has user accounts with no password set. Windows quietly blocks network logons for password-less accounts, so the client keeps hitting a wall that no sharing tick-box can fix. That is exactly why the video starts with passwords, not with the printer. Below is the full correct method, in the order a technician sets it up: roles first, then passwords, sharing settings, the share itself, drivers, and keeping the server reachable.
Example values. When the host prints fine but every client is refused, the password on the host account is the first place to look - not the printer, not the cable.
The PC with the printer plugged into it is the server. Every other PC that prints through it is a client. Almost every failed setup comes from changing settings on the wrong machine - the first five steps below happen on the server, and only the connection step happens on each client.
This is the step the whole video is built around, and it comes before any sharing setting. Windows has a built-in policy: an account with a blank password can sign in only at the PC itself, never over the network. So if the server account has no password, clients will be refused forever, whatever you tick elsewhere.
Honest note: because of this one rule, 'my printer share asks for a password and nothing works' is almost never a printer fault. Set the password and the same sharing steps that failed yesterday suddenly pass.
With passwords in place, switch on the sharing features themselves - on the server, for the network profile you actually use.
In the same window, open All Networks and make sure Password protected sharing is turned on. This is what makes the password from step 2 meaningful: only people who know an account on the server can use its printer.
Many people turn this off to escape the login prompt. On modern Windows, guest access to shares is blocked by default anyway, so the prompt usually survives - and where it does not, the printer ends up open to everyone on the network. Leaving it on, with a proper password, is both the working way and the safe way.
Short names are not cosmetic. Long names with spaces and brackets still trip up older PCs and some apps when they connect, and a name nobody can type correctly will be typed wrong at the worst moment.
OfficePrinterIf browsing does not find the printer, add it manually instead: Add a printer, choose The printer that I want is not listed, then Select a shared printer by name and type the full path such as \\ACCOUNTS-PC\OfficePrinter - the same manual route the video finishes with.
\\ACCOUNTS-PC and press EnterWhen a client connects, Windows tries to pull the printer driver from the server. If the server carries only its own driver and a client needs a different one, the connection fails halfway with a driver error. On the server, open Printer properties then Sharing then Additional Drivers and add the drivers your clients need, so every client installs cleanly the first time.
A shared USB printer exists only while its server is awake and findable. Set the server to never sleep while plugged in, and give it a fixed address on the router (a DHCP reservation) so a router restart never moves it. These two habits quietly prevent the two most common 'it worked last week' failures.
The password-first method, the sharing settings and the manual connection - the complete fix, live on screen.
▶️ Watch Full VideoBecause password protected sharing is on, which is the correct setting. Windows wants the username and password of an account on the PC that hosts the printer. If that account has no password set, the logon is blocked by Windows policy no matter what you type, so set a password on the host account first.
Start on the host, not on the clients. Confirm the host account has a password, network discovery and file and printer sharing are on for the Private profile, and the host is awake. Then connect from one client using the host name path and save the credentials when asked.
Not reliably on current Windows. Blank-password accounts are blocked from network logon by design, and guest access to shares is disabled by default. A short, real password on the host account - or one dedicated printing account - is simpler and safer than fighting those protections.