Confused about net use local admin behavior for remote administrative shares

mappeddrivenet-useremote-accesswindows-server-2008-r2

I have a windows 2008 R2 server I'm trying to access remotely, specifically I'm trying to use the c$ admin share.

  • The server is on a domain
  • My user is in the server's local admin group
  • My user is a domain account

Trying to map the share in explorer didn't work, so tried net use and discovered something that confuses me. I was hoping someone might be able to explain it.

When I try to map the drive using net use from a normal command prompt (on my machine):

net use g: \\server\c$

I get system error 5 (access denied), which I find odd, given I'm an admin on the remote server.

But if I run cmd as administrator and use the same command, it correctly maps the share.

Why do I have to be running as an admin on my own computer to connect to the remote share?
Is there a way to change this so that I can map the drive without having to elevate my local privileges?

Any help much appreciated.

Best Answer

the right click -> 'run as admin' feature is the windows equivalent of sudo (or as close as microsoft can make it) when you attempt to map a network drive, it needs to perform some admin tasks.

I've gotten around this by creating a batch script (or equiv) then in the properties of the file set it to automatically run as an administrator.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/ff431742.aspx has some more details about how to do that.

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