How To Disable or Enable the Homegroup Feature in Windows 7
Have you ever used the Homegroup feature in Windows 7? It’s a great way to share files and printers with all your Windows 7 computers, but if you don’t want it anymore, you can disable or enable the feature easily.
Disable the Homegroup Feature in Windows 7
The first thing you’ll want to do is open up Windows Explorer, right-click on the Homegroup option in the left-hand pane, and then choose Change HomeGroup settings.
At the bottom of the window, you’ll find an option called “Leave the homegroup”, which you should click.
Now you’ll be presented with a wizard asking you to confirm that you really want to leave the homegroup.
This disables the homegroup, but doesn’t remove it from the navigation pane.
Remove Homegroup from the Navigation Pane
Next, you’ll want to open up services.msc in the start menu search box, or just find it through Control Panel. Find HomeGroup Listener in the list, and double-click on it.
Change the Startup type to Disabled, and click the Stop button to stop the service. Once you’re done with that, you’ll need to disable the Homegroup Provider service in the same way.
At this point you’ll notice that it’s gone from the navigation pane.
How to Enable Homegroup Again
First, you’ll want to enable the service again—head back into services.msc, find the HomeGroup Listener and set it to automatic. Next, head into Control Panel –> Network and Internet, and then click on HomeGroup.
