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Disable Automatic Shares

Windows (NT, 2000, XP) always creates automatic shares for all drives, i.e. C$, D$, E$. You may wonder, what is the meaning of $ in the share name. It means a hidden share, so that it will not appear in the Browser window. This feature is quite dangerous, you might have your drives shared without your knowing!! You may ask: "Can I stop the automatic shares ??", and you will smile happily, because YES, you can stop it!!

To do this, please follow these steps carefully:

  1. Run the Registry Editor, by clicking Start - Run - type "Regedit" (Enter)
  2. Open the hive HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\LanmanServer\Parameters
  3. Create a value, by clicking menu Edit - Add Value. The value's name is called AutoShareServer (if you have NT Server) or AutoShareWks (if you have NT Workstation). The value's type should be DWORD and click Ok. Type 0 for the value's content.
  4. Close the Registry Editor
  5. Reboot your computer