From ultrabooks to netbooks, computers are shedding their
optical drives. If you still use an occasional CD or DVD, you
don’t have to buy an external optical drive – you can share
another computer’s optical drive over the network. The two
computers must be on the same local network to share an optical
drive. This requires using the Advanced Sharing settings in
Windows – there’s no easy, HomeGroup-style way of doing this.
Sharing a Drive First, open the Computer window (click Start and
select Computer) on the computer with the optical drive. Right-
click the drive you want to share, point to Share with and
select Advanced Sharing Click the Advanced Sharing button in the
properties window that appears. In the next window, enable the
Share this folder checkbox. Type a descriptive name – such as
“CD Drive” – for the share, and then click the Permissions
button. Ensure that the Everyone group has Read access to the
drive. If you require additional security – for example, if
you’re not using a home network — you can