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Question
Monday, July 24, 2017 2:45 PM | 1 vote
We recently upgraded from Windows 7 to Windows 10 and now are having an issue with drive mapping in our company. We use GPOs to map drives with 'Replace' action. This causes all open explorer windows to force close during group policy updates in the background.
So we tried to use the 'Update' action instead. This did not close explorer windows, but we were no longer able to assign new network shares to people or remove shares by removing the user from the group that created the drive mapping. Only currently connected shares could be updated.
So my question is, what is the best practice for network drive mapping?
Use 'Replace' and suffer from the force close of explorer every 90 minutes, or use 'Update' and having to manually update every user's shares if there's a change in drive letters?
Or did I miss something and that's actually a misbehavior?
Thanks a lot!
All replies (15)
Tuesday, July 25, 2017 2:33 AM
Hi,
In my opinion, Replace action is proper and current phenomenon is normal, when we update this GPO, the Explorer interface does will be closed due to drive map behavior. Update action just modifying settings of an existing mapped drive for users.
So you could continue using replace action. To my knowledge, Replace actually deleted the drive mapping every time the user logs onto the computer. This is done only during logon so the replace option does not cause that much issue.
On the other hand, GPP(Group Policy Preferences) is usually used for Map Drives Based on Group Membership.
Look at this guide for detailed steps
IT: How to Map Network Drives on Windows Clients via Group Policy
https://www.howtogeek.com/99403/it-how-to-map-network-drives-on-windows-clients-via-group-policy/
Please Note: Since the website is not hosted by Microsoft, the link may change without notice. Microsoft does not guarantee the accuracy of this information.
Regards
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Tuesday, July 25, 2017 8:43 AM
Thank you for your answer! Sadly that does not help me much as it doesn't solve the behavior issue.
I can hardly believe that since Windows 8.1 where this appeared the first time, Microsoft didn't release any solution to that. Who can work like this if every 90 minutes your explorer windows close automatically or a member of the It has to come to your computer every time something changes on the network drives.
Wednesday, July 26, 2017 3:17 AM
Ok, so you could try my GPP method, it’s easy to map Network Drives for Clients via Group Policy on DC.
There is a video introducing detailed operations
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-m0hIcE8Yr8
Please Note: Since the website is not hosted by Microsoft, the link may change without notice. Microsoft does not guarantee the accuracy of this information.
Please remember to mark the replies as answers if they help.
If you have feedback for TechNet Subscriber Support, contact [email protected].
Wednesday, July 26, 2017 6:22 AM
Thanks for the link but that's not what I was asking for. I guess I didn't write my question correctly.
We do use Group Policies for Network Drive Creation already, depending on which group they're in.
But we have the problem, that the explorer always closes on refresh of the network drives.
Drive allocations change quite often here, so we need a solution that can update drives frequently without us having to always go to the users and do it on their computers.
And we cannot have the users create and delete the drives themselves.
Wednesday, February 14, 2018 7:05 PM
I have had the same issue pop up. I don't recall it being a problem before, but now it is. Maybe something changed in a windows update, who knows. Anyway, I typically make group policy changes with new objects, so I have an object that is called Drive Maps and only has settings for this. I am going to try and disable the policy now that all the drives are mapped with the replace function. If I make a change, I will re-enable the policy for a couple days until all the revised mappings get rolled out.
Hope that helps you and me.
Many Thanks, JP
Tuesday, September 25, 2018 3:18 PM
I've exactly the same issue and only on Windows 10 Computers. Any solutions ? Computers and servers are updated.
Friday, October 19, 2018 8:10 AM
Same issue here also. Anyone have a solution?
Friday, October 19, 2018 8:35 AM
Do you have one GPO for all drives?
Friday, October 19, 2018 9:06 AM
Yes we have 1 policy for all drives. The closing windows explorer stops occurring if you configure the mapping to update but the issue persists that if you remove a user from that group it does not remove the mapping. Thats the issue here. If you add a delete at the top starting from say F: that still makes the drives dissapear and reappear when gpupdate occurs.
How when using update do we remove drives that are not used anymore?
Friday, October 19, 2018 9:42 AM
For anyone thats interested ive found a workaround. I have changed all mappings to 'update' from 'replace' and I have configured a logoff script to remove all drives - net use * /d /y
now when a user is removed from a group it does not map on log on.
Friday, October 19, 2018 10:23 AM
I'd try to use one GPO for each drive. We use this and it works great. What do your GPO settings look like?
Friday, October 19, 2018 10:39 AM
Creating a single GPO for each mapped drive? I dont think that is the most efficient way of doing it. We have around 50 mapped drives.
Friday, October 19, 2018 10:59 AM
Ah, okay. We only have 5 mapped drives and these GPO's are applied to different OU's to restrict access. When having 50 mapped drives, that would definitely not be the best way of doing it.
Monday, November 19, 2018 9:55 PM
We are having the same issue, the only fix that works is to set it to 'Replace', then change it to 'Update' after the users log in, then change it back to 'Replace' at the end of the day.
I am currently trying to automate this process and will reply back if I find any resolutions or get my script working.
Cheers,
Jeremiah Sonnenberg
Tuesday, June 4, 2019 1:28 PM
For anyone thats interested ive found a workaround. I have changed all mappings to 'update' from 'replace' and I have configured a logoff script to remove all drives - net use * /d /y
now when a user is removed from a group it does not map on log on.
Do you set it to apply once and do not reapply? I've got the same issue and I like the idea of the logoff script. Just curious if you are using the apply once and if you have reconnect checked as well?