Solved Windows & User Folder Permanently stuck showing "Shared"

DiBBz · Aug 4, 2025

My windows folder and my user folder has a shared "Text & Icon" at the bottom of the explorer window when navigating through those directories. and i cant for the life of me get them to stop being shared amongst local network!

Ive tried many things shared online to to resolve this. including going to control panel itself for network & homegroups but clicking advanced just brings me back to the new settings menu for "Network & Internet" > Advanced Network Settings > Advanced Sharing Settings.

the red area is mostly my cause for concern as it cannot be toggled. it just straight up refuses to turn on for me to try turn off again.

Part of me thinks this could be related to massgrave as i had to initially sign in when i build the PC a couple months ago. and even tho its shows as me not be apart of an org in the settings under account. it still has my email address showing as the org in "Winver" command. despite there being no other user accounts but mine on the PC right now. so im guessing massgrave had deleted and just migrated privileges to a local profile. even tho i still had to do some reg tweaks in order to access settings cause it was showing blocked by an org.

Does anyone have any advise on how to go about fixing this issue ?

glasskuter · Aug 10, 2025

You can see anything that is being shared as well as turn off sharing for it. This article states it better than I could.

How to Stop File Sharing on Windows 10| Action1

In this article, we review multiple ways to set up file sharing in Windows. You can use the help of built-in Windows tools or try Action1 for free to prevent file sharing.

www.action1.com

DiBBz · Aug 10, 2025

glasskuter said:
You can see anything that is being shared as well as turn off sharing for it. This article states it better than I could.

How to Stop File Sharing on Windows 10| Action1

In this article, we review multiple ways to set up file sharing in Windows. You can use the help of built-in Windows tools or try Action1 for free to prevent file sharing.

www.action1.com

The plot thickens.

After starting the server services up which was disabled

i dont think this is a permanent fix to my issue. as it will become shared again upon a PC restart right ?

:EDIT:

Also meant to add this

i fee like this is a workaround attempt from massgrave but honestly i have no idea as im just spit balling at this point!

glasskuter · Aug 10, 2025

I had no idea what massgrave was until I just looked it up and found that it illegally activates Microsoft products. . Sorry, but the forum rules prevent me from helping.

pseymour · Aug 10, 2025

The sharing of fixed drives and the Windows folder isn't related to MassGrave. It's something Windows does by default. You can turn it off in an administrative PowerShell window...

Set-SmbServerConfiguration -AutoShareWorkstation $false

and restart.

DiBBz · Aug 11, 2025

glasskuter said:
I had no idea what massgrave was until I just looked it up and found that it illegally activates Microsoft products. . Sorry, but the forum rules prevent me from helping.

i mean is in a grey area of sorts. not exactly illegal considering cheap keys are generally generated from MG, and there are a few contributors/devs to MG on here.

pseymour said:
The sharing of fixed drives and the Windows folder isn't related to MassGrave. It's something Windows does by default. You can turn it off in an administrative PowerShell window...

Set-SmbServerConfiguration -AutoShareWorkstation $false

and restart.

cheers for the solution. It was just inherently odd for me as by default it shouldn't be on in the first place. so it was the only thing i could make a connection to.

After running it i got prompted for yes, yes to all, no, no to all, suspend. typed Y but no confirmation or anything after that, just a fresh new line. restarted and nothing happened. still showing the folders as shared.

pseymour · Aug 11, 2025

You may need to set AutoShareServer to false also. I’m not near a PC at the moment.

DiBBz · Aug 11, 2025

pseymour said:
You may need to set AutoShareServer to false also. I’m not near a PC at the moment.

Re-enabled and started up the server service again.

least its a start now.

only question is will this still persist after a restart.

:EDIT:

appears like all the folders go back to being shared again. tho its not really restart related its if the service for "server" gets disabled.

pseymour · Aug 11, 2025

Well I said to restart; then you’d know. :)

DiBBz · Aug 11, 2025

pseymour said:
Well I said to restart; then you’d know. :)

didnt have an entry for autoshareserver so had to make one in

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\LanmanServer\Parameters\
dword 32, then restarted PC, still nothing. The moment i disable the server services it just goes back to showing the windows folder as shared.

Rollback_Jockey · Aug 12, 2025

DiBBz said:
The moment i disable the server services it just goes back to showing the windows folder as shared.

I'd be scanning for Malware personally.

DiBBz · Aug 12, 2025

Rollback_Jockey said:
I'd be scanning for Malware personally.

i have twice. done a full scan with malwarebytes and windows also. also completely went through making sure windows defender didnt have exclusions or anything like that. all came back clean

Rollback_Jockey · Aug 12, 2025

DiBBz said:
i have twice. done a full scan with malwarebytes and windows also. also completely went through making sure windows defender didnt have exclusions or anything like that. all came back clean

There's no reason why the Windows folder should ever be shared.

DiBBz · Aug 12, 2025

Rollback_Jockey said:
There's no reason why the Windows folder should ever be shared.

Yes im aware hence the call for the help. part of me thought it was massgrave related as i was on windows 11 previously but license never wanted to carry over for some unknown reason, but pseymour says it isnt. but yea im not near enough technical to know exactly why it wont work. even tho i consider myself more tech savvy than the average person.

All i know is during the MG setup process i had to make a local account. it essentially signed me out and removed my initial setup profile as you cant bypass the sign in phase anymore not unless you have an old customized ISO for win11 for bypassing that phase. so part of me thought that the reason why its shared like that and its also the reason why i cannot toggle the "public folder sharing" option in the settings. i click it. and the button just jitters but still remains off.

Rollback_Jockey · Aug 12, 2025

What do you see if you Right Click the Windows folder and select Properties >Sharing >Advanced Sharing?

DiBBz · Aug 12, 2025

Rollback_Jockey said:
What do you see if you Right Click the Windows folder and select Properties >Sharing >Advanced Sharing?

there are no share tabs on any folders or any drives.

pseymour · Aug 12, 2025

Rollback_Jockey said:
There's no reason why the Windows folder should ever be shared.

It's like that by default, like I said above, for the Windows folder and fixed drives. You can disable these automatic shares with

Powershell:

Set-SmbServerConfiguration -AutoShareServer $false -AutoShareWorkstation $false

or setting the corresponding registry values.

As for this green arrow shared status... this seems to be some kind of bug, at least in 24H2; I haven't tried it with an older build yet. I have the shares disabled in a VM, and with the Server service enabled, the Shared state shows nothing. If I disable the Server service, the Shared state shows again, even though the folder is not shared. Doesn't really matter though, because with the Server service disabled, the shares are not accessible, even if they are present.

DiBBz · Aug 12, 2025

pseymour said:
It's like that by default, like I said above, for the Windows folder and fixed drives. You can disable these automatic shares with

Powershell:

Set-SmbServerConfiguration -AutoShareServer $false -AutoShareWorkstation $false

or setting the corresponding registry values.

As for this green arrow shared status... this seems to be some kind of bug, at least in 24H2; I haven't tried it with an older build yet. I have the shares disabled in a VM, and with the Server service enabled, the Shared state shows nothing. If I disable the Server service, the Shared state shows again, even though the folder is not shared. Doesn't really matter though, because with the Server service disabled, the shares are not accessible, even if they are present.

Appreciate the clarification, i couldn't for the life of me find anything related to it being a bug after many hours of searching on google before i came here to post the thread. but then again it doesn't seem like its a major thing that impacts ALOT of people. given this conundrum seems to have come to a close. im gonna say that this post has sealed the deal. :thumbsup:

Appreciate everyones time and input regarding this matter. Have a cookie

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