All about administrative share - Windows
![]() |
All about administrative share Windows PC |
Any drive letter + $ only the local disk volumes, not any removable devices such as CD/DVD or USB flash drives, such as admin$ which shares access to %SYSTEMROOT%, which is usually C:\WINDOWS or C:\WINNT. The "$" affixed to the end of the share name means that it's a hidden share. Windows will not list such shares while you normally access the share resource of a system like \\computername. This means that one needs to know the name of an administrative share in order to access it.
Only those by-default shares created by Windows containing the '$' suffix are considered administrative shares not all the shares includes the ‘$' character at the end. While any share (even non-administrative shares) can include a '$' character at the end of its name.
How to access these share \\network computer name\(Drive Letter)$ for example \\Mypc\c$ This represents the administrative share for the "C" drive on the computer "Mypc" and it is same for all other local drives not any removable drive.
How to enable in Windows XP Service Pack 1, 2, and 3
To enable administrative shares
- Open Explorer and select Tools -> Folder Options
- Select the View tab and scroll all the way down to the bottom of Advanced Settings
- Make sure that "Use simple file sharing (Recommended)" is not selected
Note: You should have an administrative user account and password to login.