Q&A Monday: Mapping admin C$ Share on Windows 7
Question:
On my Windows XP machines I am able to use \\hostname\C$ to map to the C drive on that computer, but when I try it with my new Windows 7 machines, I can’t get it to map.
Answer:
This isn’t just a Windows 7 issue, this issue also occurred on Windows Vista machines as well. This is caused by the UAC (User Access Control) doesn’t allow account elevation over the network with a local user account. Now there is a registry change you can make that, but I really want you to think long and hard before doing this, because it does make your system less secure.
so good to understand how Windows works.
Manual Registry Hack
Open regedit.exe through the start menu search or run box, and then navigate down to the following key, creating a new key if it doesn’t exist.
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System
On the right-hand side, add a new 32-bit DWORD value named LocalAccountTokenFilterPolicy and set the value to 1. To remove this, all you need to do is set the value to 0 or just delete the key. You just need file sharing turned on now, and you can now map the C$ drive on Vista or 7.
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If you have any questions that you want Jim to answer, from business servers to home computers, drop him a line at me@jimguckin.com, and he’ll try to answer your question. Check back every Monday for a new Question and Answer session, and during the rest of the week for his other technical insights.