How to enable/Disable Administrative shares on Windows 7, 8, 8.1 or 10 computers.

Introduction

By Default the system automatically creates hidden “Administrative shares” are defined all the default network shares that can be accessed remotely only from Network/Domain administrators. The Admin shares are hidden and they are disabled by default in a Windows 7 based computers in order to prevent unauthorized users to access or modify them through a network environment.  

By default, Windows can enable the following hidden administrative shares:

 

• Root partitions or volumes

• The system root folder

• The IPC$ share

• The PRINT$ share

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.

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.

To disable the Server service

1. Press Win+R shortcut key on the keyboard and type the following in the Run dialog:

Services.msc

2.Scroll down the right pane to the Server service and double click it.

3. In the Server Properties dialog, change the startup type from Automatic to Disabled:

4. Now click the Stop button:

5.Click on OK and you are done.

Now all Windows shares will not be accessible.

Disable administrative shares using a Registry tweak

1. Open Registry Editor.
2. Go to the following Registry key:

     HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\LanmanServer\Parameters

Create a new DWORD value here, named AutoShareWks. Leave its value data as 0:

Restart your PC.

This solution might not be suitable for users who want to get rid of administrative shares but wish to keep their own shared folders and printers accessible from the network. These users can use the second solution below.