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Using Windows Server 2008.

I would like to allow all users to map to a common network drive and be able to browse it. But, I only want them to be able to see the subfolders they actually have access rights to.
Is this doable?

I have a share with two folders on it;

With three different security groups, I would like to map a network drive for all three to \\domain\share. However, for group1, I want them to only be able to see FolderA, group2 should only see FolderB and group3 should see both.
I am not just talking about denying access to the actual folder, which is easy enough, I don't want the user to even be able to see that the folder exists.

In other words, when group 1 logs in and do "dir n:\" they should see

When group 2 logs in, they should see

and when group 3 logs in they should see
N:\Folder A
N:\Folder B

My half-baked solution
If I completely block access to the root then I can't map a drive to it. I can give everyone the traverse right which then allows the user to map a drive. However, if a member of group1 or group2 tries to go to "N:\" they get an access denied error. If they go to N:\FolderA (for group1) then it works.

So, that sort of works, but it would be nicer if the user could actually browse to N:\ and just only see the subfolders they have access to.

I am pretty sure I have seen this done but not sure how to do it myself. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

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3 Answers 3

up vote 7 down vote accepted

Most certainly you can do this natively in windows Server 2008. Have a read here:


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Thanks for this! –  Frans Oct 1 '09 at 14:51
Happy to be of service. –  joeqwerty Oct 1 '09 at 14:53
There is even an addon for Windows Server 2003 users to enable Access Based Enumeration (at microsoft.com/downloads/…)! (for those searching) I must say, it works wonderfully! –  Joshua Oct 1 '09 at 15:30

This still isn't possible in Windows...I was hoping it would be in 2008 but I think it is a limit of the current version of NTFS itself.

What you are talking about is a great feature of Netware that never bothered to come to fruition (yet) in NTFS.

See here (still after all these years):


I'd love to be wrong on this...so hopefully someone will chime in.

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Second TheCleaner here. This was a great feature of Novell Netware that never got implemented in Windows. Why bother the user with 50 folders they can't access and one they can.

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I take it all back! –  Tom Bell Oct 2 '09 at 8:04

protected by Chris S Mar 28 '12 at 17:15


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