Windows system administrators traditionally had a special shared folder that allowed access to a remote computer’s hard drive using the C$ directory.
To access this folder, it has always been necessary to have a valid user with administrator rights configured on the remote machine, properly protected with a password. Therefore, it is not a blatant risk if user permissions are correctly configured.
Nevertheless, it is clear that the existence of this folder poses a potential security risk in Windows systems. For this reason, this feature is disabled by default in Windows Vista and later systems.
However, the shared folder can be a useful tool for maintaining home or small to medium-sized corporate networks. It is also useful during deployment processes, or during repairs or maintenance tasks.
Therefore, if we want to re-enable this feature in Windows Vista, 7, or 8, we can modify the Windows Registry to have this folder available temporarily or permanently.
To do this, it is necessary to create a key in the Windows Registry, within:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System\
Here we simply create a new DWORD 32 variable, which we will call LocalAccountTokenFilterPolicy and set its value to 1.
By doing this, we will be able to have the special c$ folder available on the remote machine. However, remember that as a system administrator, it is generally a bad practice to have this feature enabled, so keep it enabled for the minimum necessary time.
