do Drive Mapping in Home windows

Despite the fact that we retailer increasingly more knowledge within the cloud, drive mapping remains to be a standard follow as of late. Community drive mapping permits you to simply entry recordsdata and folders saved on community drives and servers.

Drive mapping could be performed with a Group Coverage (GPO), PowerShell, and manually in Home windows. The benefit of mapping community drive is that you could entry the recordsdata usually via your explorer. This manner you possibly can open and save your recordsdata from any software within the desired location.

On this article, I’ll clarify how one can create a bunch coverage for drive mapping or manually add a community drive in Home windows.

Drive Mapping with GPO

The commonest manner the map community drive is with a Group Coverage (GPO). The benefit of a GPO is you possibly can simply handle, create and alter a number of drive maps. It additionally permits us to configure totally different drive maps relying on the machine or consumer with the assistance of Merchandise-level concentrating on.

When creating a brand new coverage we are able to select to hyperlink it to a consumer’s OU or laptop OU. The distinction between the 2 is:

• Consumer’s OU – It doesn’t matter on which machine the consumer logs in, the consumer will at all times get the drive mapping
• Computer systems OU – The drive mapping is tied to the pc, every consumer that logs in on the pc will get the mapped drive.

With drive mapping insurance policies, nevertheless, it’s finest follow to create solely a single coverage for all drive maps. We will use item-level concentrating on per drive map to offer solely the chosen customers, teams, or computer systems entry to the drive map.

The benefit of this technique is that it’s simpler to course of throughout login for the shopper computer systems and simpler to handle. As a result of you should have all drive mappings in a single overview, as an alternative scattered round in numerous insurance policies. So create your new drive mapping coverage in a high-level OU, for instance, Customers, or Computer systems.

Making a GPO Drive Map

1. On the area controller, open the Group Coverage Administration
2. Navigate to the OU the place you wish to create the Coverage
3. Proper-Click on on the OU and select Create a GPO on this area, and Hyperlink it right here…

Word

I start the names of the my insurance policies with both UPO (Consumer Coverage Object) or CPO (Pc Coverage Object). This manner you possibly can simply determine is the coverage is an consumer or laptop coverage.

4. Give the coverage a reputation, for instance, UPO_Drive_MAPS
5. Edit the brand new coverage (right-click on it and select Edit)
6. Broaden Preferences > Home windows Settings underneath the Consumer Configuration.
7. Proper-Click on on Drive Maps and select New > Mapped Drive

Within the New Drive Properties dialog, we might want to configure a few choices. The primary one is the motion. Let me clarify the variations between every motion:

• Create – Creates a brand new mapped drive
• Change – Recreate a mapped drive. If it doesn’t exist, it’ll create it. In any other case, it’ll overwrite the present drive mapping.
• Replace – Modify an present mapped drive or create it. The distinction between Change and Replace is that it solely updates the settings outlined inside the choice merchandise. All different settings stay as configured on the mapped drive.
• Delete – Removes a mapped drive

The most suitable choice is to make use of Replace when creating the mappings. This manner you’re at all times positive that the consumer may have the right drive mapping. The potential drawback with Change is that it might disconnect the drive briefly each 90 minutes throughout the GPUpdate cycle. This could trigger issues with particular purposes.

Tip

Create a CNAME report within the DNS server for the file server. The CNAME report is an alias and makes it simpler to maneuver the shared folders to a brand new server in a while.

8. Set the motion to Replace
9. Enter the placement of the share
10. Be sure that Reconnect is allowd
11. Non-obligatory, enter a label for the folder
12. Assign a drive letter. I want to make use of a hard and fast letter, customers have a tendency to recollect drive letters higher 😉

The choice Disguise/Present this drive within the decrease left nook permits you to create hidden drive mappings. This may be helpful when it’s essential create a drive mapping for an software, however don’t wish to give the consumer direct/easy accessibility to it. Hidden drives can nonetheless be accessible by the purposes (though I like to recommend simply use the UNC path within the software if potential)

Merchandise-level concentrating on

We’ll now have to configure the Merchandise-level concentrating on and allow the consumer safety context for the mapped drive. The primary will be sure that the drive mapping is utilized to the consumer’s account. The Merchandise-level concentrating on ensures that solely particular customers or units achieve entry to the drive mapping, as an alternative of all customers.

Good to know is that you could re-use drive letters when utilizing Merchandise-level concentrating on.

1. Click on on the Frequent tab
2. Allow Run in logged-on consumer’s safety context
3. Allow Merchandise-level concentrating on
4. Click on on Concentrating on…

Concentrating on could be performed on a whole lot of circumstances and we are able to even apply a number of circumstances with AND or OR statements. The commonest nevertheless is to use the mapping primarily based on Safety Teams, OU, or particular customers.

For instance, to offer all customers which might be members of the IT safety group entry, we are able to configure the next:

4. Within the Concentrating on Editor click on on New Merchandise
5. Select Safety Group
6. Choose the safety group from the Lively Listing

As talked about, we goal a number of teams. Let’s say we wish to map the community drive to not solely members of the IT division but additionally Administration.

6. Click on once more on New Merchandise and choose Safety Group
7. Choose the group Administration on this case
8. With the administration row chosen, click on on Merchandise Choices and select OR

The mapping will now be utilized to customers which might be both members of the IT or administration safety group.

Superior Merchandise-level Concentrating on

The item-level concentrating on additionally permits you to create collections. Collections are a bunch of guidelines that must be true to ensure that the gathering to be true. The benefit of collections is that you could create totally different mixtures and take a look at every of them.

For instance, we wish to create a drive mapping that’s being utilized to all IT members or to customers which might be members of the safety group Administration and are engaged on a pc in Amsterdam.

For the IT division, we are able to use a standard rule primarily based on the safety group. However of the administration we might want to create a set:

1. Click on on Add Assortment
2. Set the Merchandise choices to OR for the gathering
3. Proper-Click on on the gathering and select add concentrating on merchandise > Safety Group
4. Choose the managent safety group
5. Subsequent, click on once more on the assortment > add concentrating on merchandise > Group Unit
6. This time choose the OU with the computer systems in Amsterdam
7. Just remember to apply the rule to Pc in OU

Utilizing Variables in Drive Mappings

Good to know, is that you could additionally use variables when creating drive mappings. For instance, once you supply a house drive (private folder) on the file server, then we are able to use the consumer’s logon identify within the folder location path.

To see which variables can be found, press F3 when you may have the New Drive Properties dialog open. This gives you an inventory of all choices that you should utilize. All the time just remember to allow the choice Run in logged-on consumer’s safety context underneath the Frequent tab.

Map Community Drive in Home windows 11

You may also manually map a community drive in Home windows 11. That is notably useful once you solely have to map the drive briefly or in dwelling community environments the place you don’t have a website controller after all.

Mapping a community drive in Home windows 11 is fairly simple: (you could find the steps for Home windows 10 on this article)

1. Open the Explorer
2. Click on on the 3 dots (extra choices)
3. Select Map community drive

Within the subsequent display screen, we are able to configure the drive letter and community folder to open. Be sure that Reconnect at sign-in is checked, in any other case, you’ll need to re-add the drive letter in case you have logged in.

The choice Join utilizing totally different credentials permits you to make a community connection to a shared folder with totally different credentials. For instance, when you may have a NAS, you’ll generally have to enter the credentials of the NAS with a view to open the shared folder.

Verifying Drive Mappings

Drive mappings are utilized after the subsequent coverage replace, which happens roughly each 90 min, however you can too for the replace with the command GPUpdate. The simplest solution to confirm the drive mappings is to open the explorer. However that doesn’t work for hidden drive mappings.

In these instances, you should utilize the command Internet Use. Once you run this command within the command immediate or PowerShell, you’re going to get an outline of all mapped community drives, the drive letter, and the community folder.

If the coverage isn’t making use of, then confirm the coverage with the RSOP utility This built-in device permits you to confirm group coverage and discover any issues which may have occurred within the background.

Wrapping Up

Utilizing one Group Coverage for all of your drive mappings primarily based on item-level concentrating on is the perfect follow to comply with. It makes it simpler to handle your mappings and it’ll pace up the logon course of.

If it’s essential map a whole lot of community shares, then it’s generally higher to map the father or mother folder and provides the right permissions on every subfolder, as an alternative of mapping every subfolder.

I hope you discovered this information helpful, in case you have any questions, simply drop a remark under!