Windows XP in a Nutshell

Name

Create Shared Folder — \windows\system32\shrpubw.exe

Synopsis

Share a folder with other users on the network, either locally or remotely.

To Open

Command Prompt → shrpubw

Usage

shrpubw [/s computer_name ]

Description

The easiest way to begin sharing a folder or drive is to right-click on its icon in Explorer, select Sharing and Security, and turn on the “Share this folder on the network” option. However, this procedure only allows you to share local folders. If you need to access an unshared folder on a computer on the other side of the building, for example, you would have to walk over to that computer and enable sharing for the folder while sitting in front of it.

The Create Shared Folder utility not only provides an alternative interface for sharing folders, it also lets you enable sharing of a folder on the remote computer (see Figure 4-18). Create Shared Folder can almost be thought of as a “back door,” enabling access to computer where no such access has been explicitly defined. Naturally, if you don’t have administrative rights on the target computer, you won’t be able to do anything. (See Notes, below.)

Figure 4-18. The Create Shared Folder dialog provides an alternate way to share any folder on your hard disk with other computers on your network

If you run Create Shared Folder with no arguments, it will only let you share resources on the local computer. To share resources ...