Windows explorer showing X on mapped drives but only when

applicationwindows 7windows-server-2008

Hey guys here with another issue. Its a weird one.

Ok so I have a user who runs a program called Focal Point which send data to our CNC Machines. I am the IT guy so I have no clue what the machines do or how to use them.

Anyways when the user logs in and launches Focal Point it loses the Access database where the information is stored out on the network. Windows explorer shows the drives are connection. However when I open the program and search for the database it does not see the network drive. I have to do a workaround where I can open something in another part of the program and then when the windows explorer window comes up the drives all show disconnected. I double click on a drive and it opens just fine. I then go back to point the program to the database and it shows that drive as an option now.

I don't know what is happening but Symantec does it too. When I go to add an exception it shows my drives are disconnected but I can access them fine and when I do the X goes away until the next logoff or reboot.

However in programs like Office, when I go to open a document with Word, the drives do not have a red X. I will attach screenshots of what I am talking about.

This is the programs built in explorer. Cant see network drive Built in Explorer in program

This is explorer straight form windows

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I have to go to another section to find the drive through windows explorer in the program but drives have an X

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I click on a drive and it turns green and connected. Rest show disconnected. The program explorer now shows the network drive (drive S):

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Best Answer

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee844140(v=ws.10).aspx

This solved my issue. As soon as I made the registry entry the drives were showing up as connected in the program and I did not have to reconfigure it.

Related Solutions

Windows Server 2008 – Mapped Drives Not Showing on Workstations

Group Policy Preferences work great on Vista and newer OS. If your environment is all Vista or newer, use Preferences. It's straight forward, easy, and works. Preferences will not work on XP unless you have the XP CSE installed. Even with the CSE many people have reported "issues" with them working reliably. GPP is not available for older OSes than XP SP2.

Edit:
Here's a copy of the MapDrives.vbs script we use. Works flawlessly on WinXP/Vista/7/2003/2008/R2.

' Author: Chris Stone
' Date: 29 MAY 2009  Version: 1.3
' Purpose: Map network drives

On Error Resume Next
Set objNet = CreateObject("WScript.Network")

Public Sub CheckAndMapNetDrive(Letter, Path, Persist)
    'Check if drive letter is already used
    Set colNetDrives = objNet.EnumNetworkDrives
    For i = 0 To colNetDrives.Count - 1 Step 2
        If colNetDrives.Item(i) = Letter Then
            'Drive Letter Exists, Test if it's the same Path
            If colNetDrives.Item(i+1) = Path Then
                'It's the same, no new mapping necessary.
                Exit Sub
            Else
                'It's different, remove old.
                objNet.RemoveNetworkDrive colNetDrives.Item(i)
            End If
        End If
    Next
    'Drive does not exist now, never did or removed.
    objNet.MapNetworkDrive Letter, Path, Persist
End Sub 

CheckAndMapNetDrive "X:", "\\server\share1", True
CheckAndMapNetDrive "Y:", "\\server\share2", True

Why is Windows 7 booting up with Mapped drives showing as disconnected

This is a common issue with Windows 7, the best solution I've been able to find is to run a batch file that remaps the drive upon logging in.

net use [drive]: /delete
net use [drive]: \\server\share /user:[user] [password] /persistent:yes

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