Create Shared Folder Using ManagementClass - C#

Introduction

Before getting into the code, let's discuss why we need to do this programmatically rather thanmanually. This kind of functionality isusually required when we are performingan automated deployment process, where we need to createa shared folder for certain user accounts.

C# Code Using ManagementClass

public void ShareFolderPermission(string FolderPath, string ShareName, string Description)
{
    try
    {
        // Calling Win32_Share class to create a shared folder
        ManagementClass managementClass = new ManagementClass("Win32_Share");

        // Get the parameters for the Create Method for the folder
        ManagementBaseObject inParams = managementClass.GetMethodParameters("Create");
        ManagementBaseObject outParams;

        // Assigning the values to the parameters
        inParams["Description"] = Description;
        inParams["Name"] = ShareName;
        inParams["Path"] = FolderPath;
        inParams["Type"] = 0x0;

        // Finally, Invoke the Create Method to do the process
        outParams = managementClass.InvokeMethod("Create", inParams, null);

        // Validation done here to check if sharing is done or not
        if ((uint)(outParams.Properties["ReturnValue"].Value) != 0)
            MessageBox.Show("Folder might be already shared or unable to share the directory");
    }
    catch (Exception ex)
    {
        MessageBox.Show(ex.Message);
    }
}

Code Explanation

1. ManagementClass: It is a WMI class which is generally used to access the WMI data through the ManagementPath that we pass through the constructor of the ManagementClass. ManagementClass

   managementClass = new ManagementClass("Win32_Share");

2. ManagementBaseObject: It contains the basic elements of the management object. It serves as a more specific management object classes.

   ManagementBaseObject inParams = managementClass.GetMethodParameters("Create");

Execution

Call the above function like this

ShareFolderPermissions(@"D:\ Test", "Test", "TestApplication");

Once executed, go to the above specified path, right click the folder and view the properties of it. Go to Sharing tab you can see the result like this.

That's the explanation about the code used here. Rest of the code is understandable.