Several steps need to be completed before the Homegroup feature is completely disabled in Windows 7. The easiest way to start is to open the Windows control panel.

This can be done by clicking on the start orb in the lower left corner, and selecting the control panel option from the opening start menu.

A click on Choose homegroup and sharing options opens the Homegroup control panel.

disable homegroup windows 7

Here it is possible to mange to configure sharing options, and to disable the feature completely.

leave the homegroup

Locate the Leave the homegroup action at the bottom of the screen. A click on it and the confirmation to leave the homegroup in the next window disables the homegroup on the computer.

The services on the other hand are still running, and the Explorer may also show the Homegroup link in the navigation pane.

The services can be stopped in the Services configuration window. The easiest way to open that is to use the keyboard shortcut Windows-R to open the run command box, enter services.msc and the enter key in the end.

Locate the two services HomeGroup Listener and HomeGroup Provider.

homegroup listener provider

Double-click them and make sure they are not running. you can check that under Service Status. If the service is running click the Stop button to stop it. Then select Disabled as the startup type and click ok.

homegroup disable

The Homegroup feature has been completely disabled after this. It won’t show up in Windows Explorer, and the services will not start during Windows startup. (via How To Geek)

Driver Protection checks a database that is maintained locally for drivers that are known to be problematic. It can be updated via Windows Update and a new feature called Dynamic Update which essentially updates Windows 7 during installation if an Internet connection is available. Windows 7 might prevent those drivers from being loaded which is a somewhat scary sentence if there is no way to overrule the decision.

Internet Printing and the Online Print Ordering Wizard are two new print services. The first makes it possible to send print jobs to computers over the Internet using the http protocol while the second is supposed to make it easier to send digital photos to online print stores to order prints of them.

Homegroup was one of the first new features that came to light. It can connect Windows 7 computers in a home network so that they can share files and devices.

People Near Me is a service that is not explained in great detail. It basically allows a user to invite another user to join a program if the program is also installed on the other user’s computer and if the two computers are connected in a local network. There is no definition of programs. It could be entertainment related but also about communication or something completely different.

The last feature might cause lots of controversy. Trusted Platform Module (TPM) Services is an implementation of Trusted Computing which has caused privacy concerns.

The same document mentions Windows 7 Enterprise and Windows 7 Ultimate which seems to suggest that Microsoft will release a similar amount of Windows 7 editions.