Member Avatar for chrisbliss18

I've been running Vista since it first released. Since day one, I've been able to share the root of a drive (share the entire drive, not just a folder in a drive).

I recently added a new drive, shared it, and have had problems with it the whole time (file permissions that don't stick, file access problems across the network). I tried fixing this tonight and found something very peculiar. All the "Sharing..." and Security options for every drive are gone. All the previous shares are just as they were and work perfectly, but I cannot access a Sharing or Security tab for any of the drive properties. I can access a share wizard if I right-click a folder and select Share, but that option no longer exists for any of my drives.

If I were to guess, the last patch my system got changed this behavior. Has anyone else experienced this and found a solution? Thank you for any input.

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by jason.chen

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Short summary and practical checklist based on the thread: the sharing engine itself still works (which is why shares can be created from an admin tool), but the Explorer UI can hide the Security/Sharing controls for several reasons. That split — UI missing while the service still accepts shares — narrows the likely causes to (a) the Security tab being disabled by policy/registry, (b) the drive not being an NTFS volume (no ACLs), (c) the Sharing Wizard / Explorer UI mode, or (d) a per-profile Explorer/shell issue. The clues from and point exactly at UI vs ACLs rather than a broken SMB stack. (learn.microsoft.com)

Quick diagnostics (in order)

  • Check the drive file system (Drive → Properties → General). FAT/exFAT volumes won’t show a Security tab. (learn.microsoft.com)
  • Check whether the Security tab is disabled by policy or registry: the “Remove Security tab” GPO / NoSecurityTab registry value will hide it. Use gpedit.msc (User Configuration → Windows Components → File Explorer) or run an RSOP/gpresult to see applied policies. (learn.microsoft.com)
  • If the Explorer UI is the problem but you need an admin workaround, use Computer Management → System Tools → Shared Folders → Shares (or run the Share-a-Folder wizard) to create/inspect shares; that operates at the server/share layer independent of File Explorer’s property pages. (flylib.com)

Safe fixes and fallbacks

  • If NoSecurityTab is set by mistake, change the GPO to “Not Configured/Disabled” or remove/reset HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer\NoSecurityTab, then log off/in. (Back up registry first.) (learn.microsoft.com)
  • If you only need to restore network write access and the GUI is missing, set share permissions and NTFS ACLs from an elevated command prompt (test on a non-production folder first). Example commands:
    net share MyDrive=C:\ /grant:Everyone,full
takeown /f C:\ /r /d Y
icacls C:\ /grant Everyone:(OI)(CI)F /T

    Use caution: granting Everyone full control is very permissive — prefer specific users/groups and test access. (learn.microsoft.com)

Notes and cautions

  • Share permissions and NTFS permissions combine: the most restrictive set wins for network access — verify both. If a UI change or Windows update caused the problem, use rsop.msc / gpresult to find which policy applied the change; if a new local user account shows the tabs, the original profile may be corrupted. (support.microsoft.com)

If the above doesn’t resolve it, collect gpresult/rsop output and a list of drive file systems and applied local policies — that will quickly show whether this is policy, file-system, or profile-related.

Member Avatar for chrisbliss18

I've since found half a solution to this problem. If I go into the Computer Management console, there is a "New Share" option when you right-click the active shares sub-folder. From that wizard, I can add a share to anything, including drives.

There still is a problem with not being able to access the security tab for any of the drives, so I still need some help with that.

Member Avatar for jason.chen

I also encountered a very similar problem. Before I added the second drive, I had one drive with two partitions. I had no problem sharing them on the network to everyone by setting the "Sharing" tab in the drive property.

After I installed the new drive, I did the same thing. But other PCs on the network could only read the content of drive but not write to it, even though the sharing include "everyone" with 'full control."

Then I looked into the "Security" tab next to the "Sharing" tab in the drive property, there was no "Everyone" user name. After I added the "Everyone" user name (also enabled the drive sharing to everyone), the whole drive is now writable by everyone from the network.

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