Disable administrative shares in Windows 10, Windows 8 and Windows 7

By default, Windows creates some hidden shared folders. These folders are identified by a dollar sign ($) at the end of the share name and so they are hidden. Hidden shares are those that not listed when you look at the network shares on a computer in File Explorer's Network node, or using the net view command. Windows 10, Windows 8, Windows 7 and even Vista and XP create hidden administrative shares that administrators, programs, and services can use to manage the computer environment on the network. In this article, I would like to share with you two ways to disable these shares.

Any user with administrative access on your local computer or Active Directory domain (if it is connected) can access any partition on your PC without your knowledge and without you explicitly sharing a folder as long as he has your user account credentials. All partitions are shared for administrators in Windows NT operating systems due to the administrative shares feature.

I do not like this default behavior and always disable administrative shares right after the install. There are two ways to disable them.

Disable administrative shares using the "Server" service.
The Server service is responsible for all shares available on your PC including administrative shares. If you do not plan to use file and print sharing at all on your PC, you can disable the Server service. This will remove access to any shared folder from your Windows operating system.

Also read : windows 7 lanmanserver

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