How to remove Administrative Shares in Windows Server

When multiple computers are connected to a network, Windows automatically creates Administrative sharing to allow remote access for various operations. This allows administrators and support technicians to efficiently manage services. In some cases, these shares can pose a potential security threat to your system. As such, it is best to remove administrative shares from Windows Server. Here’s how to get rid of it.

Disable administrative shares from Windows Server

If you are not aware, these special shared resources are not visible in ‘File explorer“Or under”This PC‘section. To view them, you must bring “Share folders“In use. The tool is easily found under “Computer management” Next, to remove special shared resources and prevent them from being created automatically,

1. Use the registry
2. Use Ultimate Windows Tweaker

You can recognize administrative sharing when a drive letter or folder name has a “$” sign attached to the end. Example,

• DriveLetter $: this is a partition or shared root volume. Shared root partitions and volumes are displayed as the name of the drive letter with the dollar sign ($). For example, when the drive letters C and D are shared, they are displayed as C $ and D $.
• ADMIN $: It represents a resource mainly used during remote administration of a computer.
• PRINT $: Used when administering printers remotely.
• FAX $: shared folder on a server, used by fax clients when transmitting faxes.

To delete administrative shares and prevent them from being created automatically in Windows,

1]Use of the register

Please note that the method involves steps that require you to modify the registry. However, serious problems can arise if you modify the registry incorrectly. Make sure to follow these steps carefully. For added protection, back up the registry before editing it.

Launch the ‘Run»By pressing Win + R in combination.

In the box that appears, type “regedit.exe“And press”Enter’.

Then in the ‘Registry Editor” Which opens, go to the following path address –

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetServicesLanmanServerParametersAutoShareServer.

Here, the registry subkey ‘AutoShareServer»Must be defined as REG_DWORD type.

When its value is set to 0 (zero), Windows does not automatically create administrative shares. As such, you will need to change this value if it is not set to “0”. To do this, double-click on the value to open the Edit String area

In the Value data box, type 0, and then click OK.

Exit the Registry Editor.

Once done, stop and start the Server service. For that, that,

Again, open the ‘Run»By pressing Win + R in combination.

In the box that appears, type “cmd » then click OK.

When the command prompt window opens, type the following lines. Press Enter after each line:

net stop server

net start server

Type exit to close the command prompt window.

This should solve the problem.

2]Using Ultimate Windows Tweaker

Our Ultimate Windows Tweaker freeware lets you remove administrative shares from Windows with one click.

Just launch the utility, go to Security & Privacy> Security Settings. Here you can Disable administrative shares.

I hope this helps you!