KB ID 0000857
Problem
The title may raise an eyebrow, in a time when people are concerned with hardening their servers and making things more secure, why would you want a shared folder anyone can access without a password? Well because most of us operate in the real world where the biggest secret on our network is ‘who has not paid into the biscuit fund?’
I have a folder on my test domain that I use for sharing files and programs with my colleagues. I don’t want to start creating user accounts for them, so they have to ask me what the password is every time they need to copy an ISO file, or want to drop some service packs in there.
Solution
1. Create your folder, and from its properties, share the folder and grant anonymous access.
2. Don’t forget to also set the NTFS permissions on the ‘Security tab.
3. Even with these permissions set you will get prompted for a username/password unless you enable the ‘Guest’ account.
Note: Here the share is on a domain controller, if your server is simply a member/workgroup server, then enable the Guest account in ‘local users and groups’, (Windows Key+R > lusrmgr.msc {enter}).
Related Articles, References, Credits, or External Links
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