Network Share preference items let you create, update, replace, and delete shares. Before you create a Network Share preference item, you should review the behavior of each type of action possible with this extension.

Creating a Network Share item

To create a new Network Share preference item

  1. Open the Group Policy Management Console. Right-click the Group Policy object (GPO) that should contain the new preference item, and then click Edit.

  2. In the console tree under Computer Configuration, expand the Preferences folder, and then expand the Windows Settings folder.

  3. Right-click the Network Shares node, point to New, and select Network Share.

  4. In the New Network Share Properties dialog box, select an Action for Group Policy to perform. (For more information, see "Actions" in this topic.)

  5. Enter network share settings for Group Policy to configure or remove. (For more information, see "Network share settings" in this topic.)

  6. Click the Common tab, configure any options, and then type your comments in the Description box. (For more information, see Configure Common Options.)

  7. Click OK. The new preference item appears in the details pane.

Actions

This type of preference item provides a choice of four actions: Create, Replace, Update, and Delete. The behavior of the preference item varies with the action selected and whether the share already exists.

Create

Create a new share for computers.

Delete

Remove ("un-share") a share from computers.

Replace

Delete and re-create a share. The net result of the Replace action is to overwrite all existing settings associated with the share. If the share does not exist, then the Replace action creates a new share.

Update

Modify settings of a share. This action differs from Replace because it only updates settings that are defined within the preference item. All other settings remain as configured on the share. If the share does not exist, then the Update action creates a new share.

Network share settings

Share name

Enter a name for the share.

This field accepts preference processing variables. Press F3 to display a list of variables from which you can select.

This option is available except when you have selected Action Modifiers and the action is Delete or Update.

Folder path

Enter a path of an existing folder to which the share will point.

This field accepts preference processing variables. Press F3 to display a list of variables from which you can select.

This option is available except when you have selected Action Modifiers and the action is Delete or Update.

Comment

Type text to be displayed in the Comment field of the share. If the action selected is Update, the share already exists, and this field is left blank, then the existing comment is left unchanged.

This field accepts preference processing variables. Press F3 to display a list of variables from which you can select.

This option is available only if the action selected is Create, Replace, or Update.

Action Modifiers

You can modify or delete all shares of a particular type rather than a single share. These options are available only if the action selected is Update or Delete.

  • To modify or delete all shares that are not hidden (having a name ending in $) or special (SYSVOL and NETLOGON), select Update or Delete all regular shares.

  • To modify or delete all hidden shares except administrative drive-letter shares, ADMIN$, FAX$, IPC$, and PRINT$, select Update or Delete all hidden non-administrative shares.

  • To modify or delete all administrative drive-letter shares (named with a drive letter followed by $), select Update or Delete all administrative drive-letter shares.

Note

Special shares (SYSVOL and NETLOGON) and administrative shares other than drive-letter shares (ADMIN$, FAX$, IPC$, and PRINT$) can be modified individually by selecting the Update action and specifying the share name.

User limit

Configure the number of users allowed to be simultaneously connected to the share.

  • To restrict the number of users, select Allow this number of users and enter the maximum to allow.

  • To make the number of users unrestricted, select Maximum allowed.

  • To leave the allowed number of users unchanged when updating a share, select No change.

    Note

    If creating or replacing a share, selecting No change configures the number of users as the maximum allowed.

These options are available only if the action selected is Create, Replace, or Update.

Access-based Enumeration

Configure the visibility of folders within the share.

  • To make folders within the share visible only to those who have read access, select Enable.

  • To make folders within the share visible to all users, select Disable.

  • To leave the visibility of folders within the share unchanged when you update a share, select No change.

This option is available only if the action selected is Create, Replace, or Update.

Additional considerations

  • Network Share items create, modify, or delete share points, but do not create or delete the folders to which they point. For a share point to be created, the folder to be shared must already exist on computers to which the Group Policy object is applied. When a share is deleted, the share point leading to the folder is removed, but the folder and its contents are not deleted.

  • For information on how to use a Folder preference item to create or delete folders using Group Policy, see Folders Extension.

  • Access-Based Enumeration options take effect only if the computers hosting shared folders have the Windows Server® 2003 Service Pack 1 or later or Windows Server® 2008 R2 or Windows Server 2008 operating system installed.

  • You can use item-level targeting to change the scope of preference items.

  • Preference items are available only in domain-based GPOs.

Additional references

  • Network Shares Extension
  • Registry Extension