How to share a folder or directory in Windows
Creating a network share within Windows
Users can share any of their directories or drives by following the steps below. Note: Microsoft Windows does not allow for a single file to be shared, it must be the directory or drive that the file is within that is shared.
- Right-click the directory or drive you want to share and click Properties.
- Within the Properties window, click the Sharing tab.
- Click the Advanced Sharing button or select the option to share the folder and specify the name you want the share to be. The name is what is used in conjunction with the computer name to access the share. If you want this share to be accessible to as many users as possible, make sure not to have spaces in the share name.
Sharing a folder through the Windows command line
Microsoft Windows users can also use the net share command to share a directory or drive on their computer. This can be done by following the steps below.
- Open an MS-DOS window.
- From the MS-DOS prompt, type a command similar to the example below. In the example, "hope" is the name of the share that would be created, and "c:\hope\files" is the name of the directory we want to share. Keep in mind that this example would provide full access to the folder.
net share hope=c:\hope\files