Windows Server 2008 – Mapped Drives Not Showing on Workstations

group-policymappeddrivenetwork-sharewindows-server-2008

I am running Windows Server 2008 Standard Edition with a Windows XP Pro workstation setup as a test unit.

I have added an Organisational Unit called 'Misc Users' and have linked a GP called 'Basic Security GP' to the OU. Any changes I make to the GP are almost immediately reflected on the workstation. I have removed the control panel, run and setup roaming profiles which map successfully from the H drive to my share on the server.

I want to add another mapped drive as a test. I have created a simple share on the server which is:

\\server\miscusers

So I have edited the GP and added a mapped drive with the following settings:

Action: create
Location \\server\miscusers
Reconnect: No
Label As: Misc Users
Use: O
Show this drive is selected

but the mapped drive never shows up for my user.

Is there any reason for this? I have prevented the A, C and D drive from being shown in My Computer but as this drive is O it should work.

Thanks,
Danny

Best Answer

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
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