Share this article

Improve this guide

Remove Homegroup on Windows 10/11 [Step-by step Guide]

Apply our detailed procedures right away

9 min. read

Updated onOctober 4, 2023

updated onOctober 4, 2023

Share this article

Improve this guide

Read our disclosure page to find out how can you help Windows Report sustain the editorial teamRead more

If you have two or morecomputers, you can use Homegroup to connect them in order to share files between them. This is a greatfeature, but sometimes, you need to stop and disablefile sharingbetween the PCs in your network.

To do that, you need to remove Homegroup, and today we’re going to show you how to do it onWindows 10.

How can I remove the Homegroup on Windows 10?

Homegroup is afeaturefirst introduced in Windows 7. Due to the simplicity of thisfeature, it remained a part of all future versions of Windows. Homegroup allows you to share files between the PCs in your home network easily.

You don’t need to enter anypasswords; all you have to do is join a Homegroup, and you’ll be able to share files instantly. As you can see, this is a great feature, but sometimes, users want to remove the Homegroup and stopfile sharing.

1.Leave Homegroup and disable its services

Creating Homegroup is quite simple, but removing it is simple as well. To do that, you have to enter HomeGroup settings and choose the option to remove the Homegroup. To do that, follow these steps:

Leaving the Homegroup is simple, but even if you leave it, you’ll still have Homegroup icon available in Navigation Panel in File Explorer. This isn’t a major problem, but if you want to remove it you can do so by following these steps:

After disabling HomeGroup services, the Homegroup icon will disappear from the Navigation Panel completely.

Use Registry Editor

If you want to remove Homegroup icon from Navigation Panel, you can do so by usingRegistry Editor. We have to warn you that Registry Editor is a powerful tool, and if you’re not careful you can cause stability issues with yourWindows 10installation.

If you decide to use this method, it might be a good idea to export your registry anduse it as a backupin case anything goes wrong. To edit your registry, do the following:

If you have Homegroup icon appearing on your Desktop, you can remove it using Registry Editor. To do that, follow these steps:

If youcan’t edit yourWindows 10‘s registry, read thishandy guide and find the quickest solution.

Delete the contents of the PeerNetworking folder

If you have a problem removing the Homegroup, you can easily remove it manually simply by deleting the contents of the PeerNetworking folder. To do that, you need to follow these steps:

For this solution to work, some users are suggesting to delete the contents of PeerNetworking folder on all PCs that are connected to the Homegroup.

After performing these steps on all computers in yourhome network, you canremove the Homegroup without any problems.

If youcan’t delete the contents of the PeerNetworking folder, check out this useful guide that will help you do it with ease.

Turn off all PC connected to Homegroup

Few users reported that they could remove Homegroup simply by turning off all PCs connected to the Homegroup. If there aren’t any PCs connected to the Homegroup, the Homegroup will disappear, so be sure to try this solution.

Remember, you need to turn off all computers on yourhome networkand keep them all turned off at the same time. After doing so, you should be able to remove the Homegroup.

Some users are also suggesting to create a new Homegroup on a different PC while all other PCs are turned off, so be sure to try that as well.

Use DISM tool

If you have problems with removing Homegroups, that might be caused by a corruptedWindows 10installation. To fix this problem, it’s advised that you run the DISM tool and scan your PC with it.

Users reported that you should use DISM tool after you delete the contents from PeerNetworking folder. For more information on how to delete those files, checkSolution 3.

To perform DISM scan on your PC, you need to do the following:

After the process is completed, the Homegroup should be removed, and you can create a new one.

If you’rehaving trouble accessing Command Prompt as an admin, then you better take a closer look atthis guide.

Search for Homegroup on your C drive

Few users reported that they could remove Homegroup on their PC simply by searching for the Homegroup. To do that, follow these steps:

Your Homegroup should now be removed. A few users reported that they got a message saying that removal process failed, but despite the message the Homegroup was successfully removed.

Change Homegroup advanced settings

According to users, you can stop computers from automatically joining Homegroup simply by changing Homegroup settings.

By default, Homegroups don’t require you to enter password in order to join them, and all PCs on yourhome networkwill automatically join the Homegroup.

This isn’t something that users want, and if you want to remove a Homegroup from your PC, you need to do the following:

After doing so, your PCs won’t automatically connect to the Homegroup, and all your computers will be removed from your Homegroup. If you still want to join the Homegroup, you can do that manually by entering your user account password.

Change the security permissions

If you can’t remove a Homegroup on yourWindows 10PC, you might have to change the security permissions of specific folders. To do that, follow these steps:

Solution 9 – Check your firewall

If you want to remove an old Homegroup from your PC, you might have to check your firewall settings. To do that, follow these steps:

After doing that, the Homegroup will be removed from your PC.

Removing Homegroup from your PC is simple, but sometimes issues can occur. If you encounter any issues while removing a Homegroup, try some of our solutions.

Elsewhere, if you want a decluttered Start Menu, you canremove common group apps, too.

If you have any other questions or suggestions, please leave them in the comments section below.

Remove Homegroup on Windows 10/11 [Step-by step Guide]#

How can I remove the Homegroup on Windows 10?#

Remove Homegroup on Windows 10/11 [Step-by step Guide]

How can I remove the Homegroup on Windows 10?