It’s been a good run! The HomeGroup feature, which is available on all current versions of the operating system, and is surprising used by many, will be removed in Windows 10 Redstone 4.
Redmond has confirmed that this old yet gold feature would be going away.
In fact, the recently released preview build 17063 already removed this feature, and it will officially be off the table by the time the Redstone 4 update launches in the spring of 2018. The HomeGroup service will be retired altogether, though user profiles configured for sharing will continue to work.
And the reason for that is there are modern alternatives available that offer a lot more functionality than what HomeGroup offers:
“Easily connecting to and sharing the important pieces of your digital life with those who matter most has never been easier with today’s Modern PCs and the cloud. Whether it’s connecting PCs and printers on your home network via the Share functionality in Windows or using OneDrive to share a photo album of your last vacation, Windows 10 makes connecting multiple devices and sharing content streamlined and simple.”
Microsoft, obviously, recommends OneDrive for easy file sharing.
Now, while the software titan sees this feature as being from a pre-cloud and pre-mobile era, fact remains that many users continue to reply on HomeGroup to share their content. They’ll now have too move away, or stick with the Windows 10 Creators Update to maintain usability.
