Windows file sharing is the quickest way to make data available to many users at once. Setting it up is also extremely easy. Unfortunately, Microsoft’s instructions for setting it up don’t provide much in the way of security. In this article, we’ll show you how to share a Folder on a server and then configure security settings based best practices. This article assumes that you are familiar with creating Active Directory groups and modifying permissions.
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In the sample task, we’ll be sharing a folder located on the C drive called “CGS Data” and setting security permissions based on best practices.
File Sharing: Creating the Share
Most instructions on the web tell you to navigate to the folder you wish to share and then right-click and choose the share option. Those instructions aren’t really that great, nor do they provide a wizard that’s gives you good security control from the start. To do it right, you’ll want to start off by opening a Computer Management Console. Click the start button (or windows logo) and type “compmgmt.msc” to bring up the console. Once the console is up, expand System Tools and then expand Shared Folders. Right-Click Shares and choose New Share:
Initiating the new share using the Computer Management console
Follow the wizard and browse to the folder you wish to share. Accept all the defaults until you reach the Shared Folder Permissions settings. By default, these settings are set to “All users have read-only access”. Instead of leaving this, select the radio button to “Administrators have full access; other users have no access” and click Finish.
Upon completion of the wizard, you’ll be directed back to the Computer Management Console. The shared folder creation is complete, and we can move onto the next step.
File Sharing: Adjusting Share Permissions
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