SQL Server
Windows 8 Administrative Shares: 'Access is Denied'
For security reasons the built-in admin$ family of hidden shares has been disabled in Windows 8.
Windows 8 Administrative Shares
Windows 8 Administrative Shares Access Denied
The situation: you try to connect to a network machine via a hidden share such as c$ or admin$ (\\MachineName\c$), and receive an error messages:
- Access is denied.
- The specified username is invalid.
- You may not have permission to use this network share.
Solutions for Access is Denied to Administrative Shares
- One solution may be to accept the situation and abandon your attempt to connect via C$. You could try remote desktop instead. I say this not because the challenge is too difficult, but because the default is the securest configuration for remote user account control (UAC). Once you enable these hidden admin$ shares then your machine can be attacked by hackers. Indeed, that is why Microsoft removed this capability, even though it was popular with XP and Windows 98 users.
- If you really must find a solution to the Windows 8 'Access is denied' message then try leaving the Homegroup.
- If that does not work then Launch Regedit and adjust Remote User Account Control (UAC) settings.
Use Regedit to Create LocalAccountTokenFilterPolicy Value
Type Regedit in the Search dialog box, best right-click the executable and 'Run as administrator'.
Once Regedit launches navigate to this path:
HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows
CurrentVersion\Policies\System (See screenshot below)
Once you are at this folder in the registry:
HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System
HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System
Create LocalAccountTokenFilterPolicy
The text book says create a new DWORD value called LocalAccountTokenFilterPolicy
What I did was create a QWORD (64-bit) called LocalAccountTokenFilterPolicy, that worked for me when the DWORD would not allow access to my 64-bit machine.
In either case, set the value to numeric 1 (meaning on), remember to click OK.
Mostly, the LocalAccountTokenFilterPolicy value gets created before you have a chance to set the data value; no problem, just double-click and modify the data from 0 to 1.