How to Provide User Name and Password When Connecting to a Network Share

How to provide user name and password when connecting to a network share

You can either change the thread identity, or P/Invoke WNetAddConnection2. I prefer the latter, as I sometimes need to maintain multiple credentials for different locations. I wrap it into an IDisposable and call WNetCancelConnection2 to remove the creds afterwards (avoiding the multiple usernames error):

using (new NetworkConnection(@"\\server\read", readCredentials))
using (new NetworkConnection(@"\\server2\write", writeCredentials)) {
   File.Copy(@"\\server\read\file", @"\\server2\write\file");
}

Connecting to a network folder with username/password in Powershell

At first glance one really wants to use New-PSDrive supplying it credentials.

> New-PSDrive -Name P -PSProvider FileSystem -Root \\server\share -Credential domain\user

Fails!

New-PSDrive : Cannot retrieve the dynamic parameters for the cmdlet. Dynamic parameters for NewDrive cannot be retrieved for the 'FileSystem' provider. The provider does not support the use of credentials. Please perform the operation again without specifying credentials.

The documentation states that you can provide a PSCredential object but if you look closer the cmdlet does not support this yet. Maybe in the next version I guess.

Therefore you can either use net use or the WScript.Network object, calling the MapNetworkDrive function:

$net = new-object -ComObject WScript.Network
$net.MapNetworkDrive("u:", "\\server\share", $false, "domain\user", "password")

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Edit for New-PSDrive in PowerShell 3.0

Apparently with newer versions of PowerShell, the New-PSDrive cmdlet works to map network shares with credentials!

New-PSDrive -Name P -PSProvider FileSystem -Root \\Server01\Public -Credential user\domain -Persist

File.Create Network Share Different credentials Overwriting

You can use a impersonator instead:

using (var impersonator = new Impersonator(username, password))
{
    File.Copy(source, destination, true);
}

this is a copy past from our implementation, so please adjust your domain name

using System;
using System.Runtime.InteropServices;
using System.Security.Principal;

public class Impersonator : IDisposable
{
/// <summary>
///     The Impersonator class is used to access a network share with other credentials.
/// </summary>
private readonly WindowsImpersonationContext _impersonatedUser;

private readonly IntPtr _userHandle;

/// <summary>
///     Constructor
/// </summary>
/// <param name="username">The user of the network share</param>
/// <param name="password">The password of the network share</param>
public Impersonator(string username, string password, string userDomain =   "YOURDOMAIN")
{
    _userHandle = new IntPtr(0);
    bool returnValue = LogonUser(username, userDomain, password, LOGON32_LOGON_INTERACTIVE, LOGON32_PROVIDER_DEFAULT,
                                 ref _userHandle);
    if (!returnValue)
        throw new ApplicationException(
            "The applications wasn't able to impersonate the user with the specified credentials!");
    var newId = new WindowsIdentity(_userHandle);
    _impersonatedUser = newId.Impersonate();
}

#region IDisposable Members

public void Dispose()
{
    if (_impersonatedUser != null)
    {
        _impersonatedUser.Undo();
        CloseHandle(_userHandle);
    }
}

#endregion

#region Interop imports/constants

public const int LOGON32_LOGON_INTERACTIVE = 2;
public const int LOGON32_LOGON_SERVICE = 3;
public const int LOGON32_PROVIDER_DEFAULT = 0;

[DllImport("advapi32.dll", CharSet = CharSet.Auto)]
public static extern bool LogonUser(String lpszUserName, String lpszDomain, String lpszPassword, int dwLogonType,
                                    int dwLogonProvider, ref IntPtr phToken);

[DllImport("kernel32.dll", CharSet = CharSet.Auto)]
public static extern bool CloseHandle(IntPtr handle);

#endregion
}

How to access shared folder without giving username and password

I found one way to access the shared folder without giving the username and password.

We need to change the share folder protect settings in the machine where the folder has been shared.

Go to Control Panel > Network and sharing center > Change advanced sharing settings > Enable Turn Off password protect sharing option.

By doing the above settings we can access the shared folder without any username/password.

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