Access C$ drive of a PC from another PC within a local network

Question

I just reinstalled windows on my laptop and PC and found that I can no longer access laptop drives from the PC by going to e.g. \\MyLaptop\c$

I used to be able to do this, but now I'm getting an error.

Here's the details of the current state:

• I can see MyLaptop from MyPC under Network.
• When I click MyLaptop and I can see a shared Users folder.
• When I try to open \\MyLaptop\C$ I get a login box, but when I enter the credentials (using MyLaptop\LaptopUser format) I get a message: MyLaptop is not accessible. You might not have permissions... (before I was also getting 'access denied').
• The LaptopUser is the main user (administrator) on MyLaptop and I used to be able to access the drives this way before. It is also added to Security tab of the drive with Full control permissions.
• Both devices are using the same wifi connection and both are in the same homegroup (not sure if I need it though, I don't remember using it previously).
• Both devices are using Windows 7 (same as before the reinstall).
• MyLaptop is on Win7 Home Premium, MyPC is on Win7 Professional.

I know I can share the C drive (or any other drive/folder), but I would prefer not to do this, I know I didn't have to do this before.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Update:

After un-sharing the Users folder on both devices the homegroup now shows no other homegroup computers available, but both computers are still visible under Network. Trying to access the C$ drive of one from another now still shows the login box, but logging in results in Access denied error message.

New Facts:

• After executing net user administrator /active:yes and setting password for administrator user I can now access the remote drive using that user's credentials. It works both ways with the administrator users for laptop and PC.
• Therefore my question now is - what is the difference between the built-in administrator account and the non-built-in LaptopUser/PCUser account, which are also administrator type users?, ideally I would like to be able to do this using LaptopUser/PCUser

Answer 1

Try this Registry Key

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System

and set its value to

DWORD(32 bit): LocalAccountTokenFilterPolicy = 1

Answer 2

It may have something to do with elevated permissions. Your System Event Log might give you further detail as to what is going on under the hood. The Security Policy MMC snap in should be super helpful in determining/clarifying said permission issues provided your OS is compatible.

Answer 3

In Vista+, administrative shares can only be accessed if the machine is in domain and you're a domain administrator.

• This can be changed by setting HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System:LocalAccountTokenFilterPolicy to DWORD 1 -- but
• it's preferable to use the new, more manageable Users share for normal file sharing.
  • Under it, an accessing user will only see profiles and folders in them that the owner chose to share with them (technically, for which they have read&execute permissions).
    • So if you log in as yourself, you don't even need to do anything, you already have access to your entire profile folder
  • The idea is, you place all your personal files under your profile rather than in random places across the disk. It's now okay to do so.
• Finally, you can replace an administrative share with a normal share:
  • go to the drive's properties, "sharing" tab, unshare it, close the dialog, then reopen it and re-share the drive as a normal share. You need to grant an accessing user permissions at both the "share permissions" tab and for every file/folder you wish to have access to. Be careful here: you certainly don't want J Random Hacker, or a virus, or yourself accidentally to e.g. write to your Windows folder.