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insecure c drive

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by bcsdguy Jul 14, 2003 last reply Jul 14, 2003

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I just found out by coincidence that every time I boot up in win2k or xp, my c drive is automatically shared out for anyone to see. I understand that this is intended in these two operating systems. My question is: how can I prevent my drive from being shared out short of having to physically "unshare" it every time I boot up?

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by joseph moore Jul 14, 2003

The system automatically creates hidden "administrative shares" for its logical drives C:, D:, and so forth which it names C$, D$ and so forth. It also creates the admin$ hidden share for to the \winnt folder. These shares are designed for remote access support by domain administrators. By default, if you delete these admin shares, they will be recreated when you reboot. To disable permanently so they will not be recreated on the next reboot, use the following Windows NT / Windows 2000 / Windows XP registry hack:
Hive: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
Key: SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\LanManServer\Parameters
Name: AutoShareServer for servers
Name: AutoShareWks for workstations
Type: REG_DWORD
Value: 0

For background: Q156365. For details on disabling in Windows XP, see Q314984. In Windows 2000 and Windows XP, you disable the shares via

Start
Settings
Control Panel
Systems Tools panel
Shared Folders
Double-click the Shared Folders branch to expand it
Click Shares
In the Shared Folder column, right-click the share you want to disable
Click Stop sharing
Cick OK.
NOTE: If you disable an administrative share that you have created, it will not be automatically enabled after you restart your computer, and you will need to recreate the share.