When sharing Windows folders on the network, it is possible to hide the shared folder from the list of shares. This can be done by adding a $-sign to the end of a share name.
It is important to mention that this does not really hide such shares from the network. If you ask a Windows machines for a list of its shares, then it reports all shares, including those with a $-sign. It are then the clients who filter out all shares that end in a dollar-sign.
So how can you get a list of all the hidden shares on a server?
Easy: open a DOS prompt and issue the following command:
net view \\test-server /all
The output will be the following:
C:\Users\pavel>net view \\pc-name /all
Shared resources at \\pc-name
Share name Type Used as Comment
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ADMIN$ Disk Remote Admin
C$ Disk Default share
IPC$ IPC Remote IPC
Temp Disk
The command completed successfully.
馃挕
Most third-party file managers for Windows have the options to automatically display available admin resources on remote computers when browsing the network.
Enable or disable File Sharing with Group Policy
