How to create Network shares in Windows 10

Network sharing is a feature that allows you to share resources such as files, documents, folders, media, etc. on a network. These resources are made available to other users / computers over a network. In this article, we will describe how you can activate a user account to create network shares in Windows 10.

Network sharing is also called Shared resources. It allows several people to access information via several devices at the same time or at different times. By connecting a device to a network, other users / devices on the network can share and exchange information over that network.

Create network shares in Windows 10

For administrators who want to allow a user account to create shares in Windows 10, follow these steps:

• Add the user account to the Power Users administrative group. By default, the power user administration group is allowed to create shares.
• Enable the File and Printer Sharing group in the firewall. When the first user share is created (not counting the default shares), the File and printer sharing group in the firewall is automatically activated.

If the first user share is created using a user account that is not authorized to activate this group, the action will fail. In this case, you can grant the user account permission to enable the user to activate the firewall settings. To do this, add the user account to Network configuration operators group.

Additional information

In Windows 10, when a user account in the Power Users administrative group logs in, two separate access tokens are created for the user:

• A Standard user administrators group access token.
• A Directors with power group access token.

By default, the Standard Users and Power Users administrative group accesses resources and runs applications in the security context of the Standard Users administrative group. To use the Power User administrative group access token, run the application as an administrator.

However, you can configure the Local Security Policy snap-in (Secpol.msc) or the Local Group Policy Editor (gpedit.msc) to allow an experienced user who opens a command prompt window as administrator to create a share by running the command below:

net share sharename=drive:path

That’s it!

I hope you find the post informative.

Related Reading: How to share files and folders over a network in Windows 10.