Finding and Using Shared Resources on a Windows Network

You can access shared resources in Windows via "My Network Places" in Windows 2000/XP or "Network Neighborhood" in Windows 9x and NT. Through this screen you can navigate through shared resources on network servers, other computers and printers etc.

If you know a computer name on the network you can use the "Find" or "Search" tool (depending on what version of Windows you're using) from the Start menu to search for computers on the network.

Mapping Network Drives

This is only one way of connecting to network shares however. You can also map network folders as drive letters on your machine. Provided you're connected to the network you can use the drive as if it were located on your machine. Another way of connecting to network resources is to use an UNC path, which uses the format \\niksmachine\share\.

To map a network drive you can either right-click the shared resource you want to map in "My Network Places" and click "Map Network Drive" or you can use Windows Explorer, this method however requires you to either browse to a resource or know the UNC path.