Disable Access To Shared Folder To Some Computers In A Network

If there are more than one computers on a network, the need to share files and folders between them arises. It makes movement of files easier instead of transferring through a physical media such as USB drives. There are various ways on Windows Operating systems to share files on a network - Sharing Public Folders, Sharing with Password Protecting on etc. I will not be going through all the different ways, but you can refer to the following link. It has a list of links you can refer to.
http://www.howtogeek.com/school/windows-network-sharing/lesson4/all/. In this post, we will see  How to deny access to a Windows Shared Folder to a computer on the network?


Scenario:
You are an admin and you have admin access to all computers on the network or office. And you want to disable access to the shared folder to some computers on the network.

• Suppose a computer, PC1, has created shared folder sing the "Advanced Sharing" by right-clicking on the "Folder > properties > Sharing Tab > Advanced Sharing". "Network Discovery" is turned on and "Password protecting is turned on" in "Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\Network and Sharing Center\Advanced sharing settings". Under Advanced Sharing > Permissions, "Everyone" is removed and a username is provided in the permissions.
• PC2, which is in the same network, accessed the shared folder by PC1 using the shared path (example: \\PC1\shared-folder-name) or from "Windows Explorer > Network > PC1". 
• Since password protected sharing is turned on, the Username and Password of a user on PC1 is used from PC2 to access the shared folder.
• PC2 do not need to enter the Username and Password every time to view the shared folder as Windows have saved the credentials.

 Issue: PC1 now wants to deny access to PC2 only.

 How to deny access to a Windows Shared Folder to a computer on the network?

If a folder on Windows is not shared with "Everyone", it is usually accessed by entering a Username and Password of a user account of the computer that shared the folder. From the other computer, the credentials need not be types each time it is accessed, as  Windows have saved the credentials. Now, to deny access to a shared folder on another computer in the network, who currently have access to the shared folder, do the following steps to deny access to the shared folder.

Do the following on the computer where you want to deny access:

• Open "Control Panel\User Accounts\Credential Manager"
• Click on "Windows Credentials"
•  Under "Windows Credentials", you will see the name of the computer(s) for which Windows have saved credentials.
• Click on the down arrow, and click "remove".
• Confirm the deletion.
• Next time, when a user from PC2 attempts to connect to the computer, the user will see the login screen to enter the Username and Password.

Control Panel\User Accounts\Credential Manager\Windows Credentials

After the computer is removed from Windows Credentials Manager, next time a user attempts to connect to the shared folder sees the login screen.

Now that access to PC1 has been completely removed, a user from PC1 will not have access to any other shared folder that he may need to access. In that case, the following solution may help:

• Use "Share with Everyone" to share the folder to all users in the network.

To share a folder only to a particular computer, the following setup can help:

• Create a new user account on the computer sharing the folder. 
• Share the folder with permissions given to this new folder created.
• From the second computer, access the shared folder using the path of the shared folder or using network in Windows Explorer.
• When asked for credentials to access, enter the Username and Password of the new user account created.