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Disable administrative shares

Windows automatically shares certain folders over the network, examples being C drive, C:\Windows & IPC$. Learn how to disable these administrative shares from command prompt.

Execute the below net share command to delete the system/hidden shares.

net share sharedFolder /delete

So to delete each of the system shares, we can run a separate command

net share C$ /delete
net share IPC$ /delete
net share ADMIN$ /delete

Example:

C:\>net share
Share name   Resource                        Remark
---------------------------------------------------------
C$           C:\                             Default share
IPC$                                         Remote IPC
ADMIN$       C:\WINDOWS                      Remote Admin
The command completed successfully.

Now run the commands to disable the shares.

c:\>net share C$ /delete
C$ was deleted successfully.
c:\>net share  IPC$ /delete
IPC$ was deleted successfully.
c:\>net share ADMIN$ /delete
ADMIN$ was deleted successfully.
c:\>net share
There are no entries in the list.
c:\>

Alternative command to delete system shares

Using for loop, we can run just one command that iterates over all administrative shares and issues delete command.

for %i in (C$ IPC$ ADMIN$) do net share %i /delete
5 comments… add one
  • Gerek Beurau

    This is a useful feature to prevent viruses running around the network. If you are a home user, it’s always better to use a single PC and transfer files through Wi-Fi after scanning. Easy to use commands.

  • Paweł Piwowar

    or you can stop server service ; net stop LanmanServer

  • Ahmed

    Instead of entering commands separately, i think we can use && between each commands?

    • Itajara

      Technically true, and truly technical- to the point of irrelevance. Pawel above has the right idea – unless you dance the SAMBA, disable LanmanServer. (Who uses samba these days anyway?) Hell, I disable “server” and “workstation” services, windows ‘error’ reporting, bluetooth, etc. etc.

  • xwaqwyqls

    I got the following error whilst executing one of the commands:

    “net share IPC$ /delete
    System error 5 has occurred.

    Access is denied.”

    How can I fix this?

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