Windows: Hidden shares

1 Open Windows Explorer
Navigate to the Network folder in the tree, and select your own PC to see all (visible) shared folders.
2 Expose the Hidden Shares
To see a hidden share, type it into Windows Explorer's address bar, complete with trailing $, and press Enter. Easy—if you know the name.
3 See Everything That Can Be Seen
Use the Computer Management tool (comp mgmt.msc) to see a complete list of all hidden and visible shares on your PC. You can right-click any shared item here and select Stop Sharing to get rid of it, but Windows will share it again when you restart unless you disable the feature altogether.
4 Plug the hole
In the Windows Registry (Start | Run, regedit), navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\lanmanserver\parameters, and create two new DWORD values, AutoShareServer and AutoShareWks, both set to zero.
5 Reboot
You'll need to restart Windows for the change to take effect.