Viewing shared folders on a Windows system

There are several ways you can view the list of shared folders on a system running a Microsoft Windows operating system (OS).

Method 1: Using Computer Management — Graphical User Interface (GUI)

1. Press the Windows key plus the X key (or you can press the Windows key plus the R key, type compmgmt.msc and press Enter.
2. In the left pane of the window, expand System Tools, then Shared Folders, and then select Shares. A list of all the active shared folders, their paths, and share names will appear in the right pane.

   

Method 2: Using Powershell

1. Open the Start menu, or use the Windows key and R, type PowerShell, and press Enter. Then type the command Get-SmbShare and press Enter. The command displays a table of all server message block (SMB) shares currently active on your machine.If you only want to see the directory path for a particular sharename, you can use a command such as Get-Smbshare -Name sharename where sharename is the relevant sharename. E.g., if the directory E:\Downloads was shared using the sharename Downloads.

   PS C:\> Get-SMBShare -Name Downloads
   
   Name      ScopeName Path         Description
   ----      --------- ----         -----------
   Downloads *         E:\Downloads
   
   
   PS C:\>

Method 3: Using Command Prompt

1. Open the File Explorer, which you can do by pressing the Windows key and E.
2. Click in the address bar field at the top of the File Explorer window.
3. Type \\localhost or \\127.0.0.1 and press Enter to see your computer's own shared directories over the network. The localhost name is a hostname that refers to the local system which is equivalent to the local loopback address of 127.0.0.1.

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