Question about shares and \\

i have a quick query regarding the \\ when put into windows and you look for a server name. What actually enables the server to automatically show up with the shared files or folders? Is it just that they're shares and if you've shared content on a network server, you can see them? It may seem like a silly question but is there a service or option i can turn off to stop network machines going into the server using \\server\ and checking the shares?

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PCTechLinc

That is a built-in feature of Windows, to automatically show the shares after putting the final \ after the server name. If you want to disable that ability, put a $ at the end of the Share Name when you create the share. The users will be forced to put \\servername\sharename$ if they want to access anything. That, or you can create mapped drives with Group Policy, or many other solutions.

Dojiscalper

I've never tried it but it's possible you could stop access by disabling firewall rules for SMB on the machine with the share on it.
The rules can be accessed through the network and sharing center under the advanced sharing rules, powershell, or the windows advanced firewall settings.

Strange enough, sharing and NTFS permissions are one part of the OS's that I deal with daily so I've learned a lot of odd ball tips/tricks about them.

Lexluethar

Putting the name with \\ is searchable because on dns. Dns finds the server name and navigates to that server. If there are file shares it shows them in Windows Explorer. Only if the user has effective permissions will they be able to navigate further.

Are you just trying to understand the process or stop people from seeing the shares altogether? If you don't want theme seeing it simply not share to the everyone group (by default on a server when a folder is shared the everyone group has read access).