Administrative shares are also referred to as “hidden shares”. The hidden shares on a Windows PC have a name that ends with a dollar sign ($). These are shares available on the network share that is not visible when viewing another PC’s shares but are still accessible when the share name (hidden share) is known. See this troubleshooting guide for more information “Error Code: 0x80070035: MDT unable to access the Log share, the Network Path was not found“. In this article, I will be showing you how to Create and access a hidden share folder on Windows. Also, see Hide or Remove Search Button from Windows 10 Taskbar, and how to hide the Windows 10 Taskbar.
Windows includes some Administrative shares, such as PRINT$, FAX$, C$, IPC$, and ADMIN$. Here are some similar errors “You require permission from the trusted installer: How to delete or rename files protected by Trusted Installer”, Error 740: Elevated permissions are required to run DISM. Also, see “Folder Access Denied: You require permission from SYSTEM: Unable to delete old windows folder“.
Administrative shares are beneficial when you wish to hide resources (directories) from users without completely denying them access will ACLs. My use case here is, I will be created a hidden directory for the Windows deployment log. This is needed to store entries when devices are deployed via MDT. You may want to see the following comprehensive guide on “how to deploy Windows using ADK, MDT, and WDS“.
Create an Administrative Share
Part 1: To create a hidden share, kindly follow the steps below. First, we will need to create a new folder. You do not need to create a new folder if you already have one. All you need to do is launch File Explorer and navigate to the folder you want to share. Please follow the steps discussed in step 3 below after the creation of a new folder.
Part 2: I assumed here that you do not have a folder already, I will be working you through the steps to create a new folder now. Open File Explorer and navigate to the folder you wish to have your share created in as shown below
Right-click on the folder and select New
Part 2: Right-click the newly created folder, or an existing folder and select the Properties option.
Enable Folder Sharing
This will open a Folder properties windows you just created. Click on the Sharing tab, and click on Advanced Sharing
Please see How to hide Folders and Files from Search Results in Windows, Implemented MBAM? Here is how to hide the Default BitLocker Drive Encryption item in the Windows Control Panel. Also, see how to Compact Virtual Hard Disks, and how to Prevent Windows from Saving RDP Connection History.
Enter the Share Name and Share the Folder
On the advanced Sharing Window, click on “Share this Folder”. Under the “Settings” section, type a name share name, and add the “$” character at the end to make the folder hidden.
Note: You do not need to add spaces within the share name. Click on Apply.
Add the Desired Permission
Optional: Also Click on Permission if you wish to add more users with full administrative rights. To do this, click on the Add button below and select the right permission for the person or groups afterwards.
You will be prompted to select the users or groups as shown below. Enter the name and click on Check name. Click on Ok afterwards.
Now, assign the desired permissions as shown below. This should depend on your company policy for the user or group.
On the Advanced Sharing Window, click on OK to have it closed. You will be left with the window below. Click on close. When you are done creating the administrative share.
The shared folder will be invisible henceforth using File Explorer on any device. However, it’ll still be accessible using the folder path\\TECHDARCHIVEDC\winDeploymentlog$.
Kindly refer to the following guides for more information on WDS and MDT. How to setup and install WDS role, how to configure DHCP Server option 60, 66, and 67 for WDS, how to remove Windows Deployment Services role via the GUI and PowerShell, how to add boot and install images to WDS and configure Multicast transmission via the GUI/WDSUTIL, and how to deploy images to computers or virtual machines using WDS.
Set the Advanced (special Permission)
This step is Optional: For Advanced (special Permission), you will have to click on the Security tab and navigate to.
This will open the Advanced Security for the folder you created.
To see all the available shares on this server, launch the Computer Management Tool as shown below and navigate to the shared folder.
I hope you found this blog post helpful on how to Create and access a hidden share folder on Windows. If you have any questions, please let me know in the comment session.