Hidden shared folders in Windows

Desktop Windows Operating Systems such as Windows XP, Windows 2000, etc. share the root of your hard disk drives by default. For example, if you have three partitions on your hard drive then your "C:\", "D:\" and "E:\" drives are shared by default. These shares are hidden, and they are not shown when you access a network computer by entering "\\computerName" in your "Run" dialog box. The reason for keeping them hidden is because these shares are meant for administrative purposes only. But there is a way to access these shares.

Before we start accessing these shares, let us first verify whether the roots of the partitions are shared. In your Windows Explorer, simply right click your drive name and select "Sharing and Security...". Here you will see that the share name is "C$". The magical character here is the "$". In fact, if you use this character while sharing other folders, those shares will be hidden as well. The catch is to use this character at the end of the share name, otherwise the share is not hidden.

Now let us proceed to accessing these hidden shares. The task is very simple. Just enter "\\computerName\C$" in your "Run" dialog box and the contents of the remote computer's "C:\" drive will be displayed. Same procedure goes for other shares that you have decided to keep hidden; instead of "C$", provide the share name for the particular shared folder (including the character $).

We have left out one intermediate step though. When you type in "\\computerName\C$", Windows will prompt for authentication. Here you must enter the Windows login information (username and password) of the remote machine. Remember what we discussed a few moments ago? These shares are meant for administrative purposes only. Therefore, only the credentials having administrative privileges on the remote computer will be able to access these hidden shares.

Now you know how to access hidden shared folders on a machine and how to keep your shares hidden. But, even if you know the username and password for an administrative account of the remote computer, there is still a quirk in default configuration of Windows that will hinder with your goal. But that is a topic for our next discussion.