Mapped drives missing in explorer but work in dos

I think I have found a bug in explorer, but cannot find any solution to it.

When my users log onto a computer in the domain, they may or may not have
all the mapped drives they need listed in explorer. If I drop to a command
prompt, I can see and use the drives just fine. If I relog or use task
manager to kill and run explorer.exe the drives will then show up.

It does not matter if the logon script is part of the GPO or listed as the
user’s personal login script. I do use a custom vbs script, but using a
simple net use batch file reproduces the same problem.

I do set the drives to persist so repeat logins to the same machine work
correctly, but my user base is very mobile and use any number of different
machines. It’s a large group of dental students working chair side in any
one of the 200 dental chairs available.

I also think it’s a timing issue. If the scripts are ran after the user is
logged in explorer works.

Kevin Marquette <Kevin Marquette@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:
> I think I have found a bug in explorer, but cannot find any solution
> to it.
>
> When my users log onto a computer in the domain, they may or may not
> have all the mapped drives they need listed in explorer. If I drop
> to a command prompt, I can see and use the drives just fine. If I
> relog or use task manager to kill and run explorer.exe the drives
> will then show up.
>
> It does not matter if the logon script is part of the GPO or listed
> as the user's personal login script. I do use a custom vbs script,
> but using a simple net use batch file reproduces the same problem.
>
> I do set the drives to persist so repeat logins to the same machine
> work correctly, but my user base is very mobile and use any number of
> different machines. It's a large group of dental students working
> chair side in any one of the 200 dental chairs available.
>
> I also think it's a timing issue. If the scripts are ran after the
> user is logged in explorer works.

I've seen this before -

a) implement the "Always Wait for Network" GPO setting -
http://www.boyce.us/gp/gpcontent.asp?ID=39

b) don't use persistently mapped drives - it's going to cause you problems
somehow, somewhere, sometime. I don't know VBS except how to spell it, but
in a batch file login script, you could do something like:

net use * /del /y
net use m: \\server\share1 /persistent:no
net use n: \\server\share2 /persistent:no
net use o: \\server\share3 /persistent:no

My scripts are running. It’s not a matter of waiting for the network to be
available. I can go to that machine and access those drives from a command
prompt.

I am thinking it’s a timing delay in explorer. Setting that policy creates
a huge delay in the logon process and that mitigates this problem. So your
solution does work, but the delay that it causes for all users is too long.

I would like to figure out how to fix explorer to display them properly.



"Lanwench [MVP - Exchange]" wrote:

> Kevin Marquette <Kevin Marquette@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:
> > I think I have found a bug in explorer, but cannot find any solution
> > to it.
> >
> > When my users log onto a computer in the domain, they may or may not
> > have all the mapped drives they need listed in explorer. If I drop
> > to a command prompt, I can see and use the drives just fine. If I
> > relog or use task manager to kill and run explorer.exe the drives
> > will then show up.
> >
> > It does not matter if the logon script is part of the GPO or listed
> > as the user's personal login script. I do use a custom vbs script,
> > but using a simple net use batch file reproduces the same problem.
> >
> > I do set the drives to persist so repeat logins to the same machine
> > work correctly, but my user base is very mobile and use any number of
> > different machines. It's a large group of dental students working
> > chair side in any one of the 200 dental chairs available.
> >
> > I also think it's a timing issue. If the scripts are ran after the
> > user is logged in explorer works.
>
> I've seen this before -
>
> a) implement the "Always Wait for Network" GPO setting -
> http://www.boyce.us/gp/gpcontent.asp?ID=39
>
> b) don't use persistently mapped drives - it's going to cause you problems
> somehow, somewhere, sometime. I don't know VBS except how to spell it, but
> in a batch file login script, you could do something like:
>
> net use * /del /y
> net use m: \\server\share1 /persistent:no
> net use n: \\server\share2 /persistent:no
> net use o: \\server\share3 /persistent:no
>
>
>
>

I take that back, this will work for us. I was confusing that policy with a
different one.

Thank You.

"Kevin Marquette" wrote:

> My scripts are running. It’s not a matter of waiting for the network to be
> available. I can go to that machine and access those drives from a command
> prompt.
>
> I am thinking it’s a timing delay in explorer. Setting that policy creates
> a huge delay in the logon process and that mitigates this problem. So your
> solution does work, but the delay that it causes for all users is too long.
>
> I would like to figure out how to fix explorer to display them properly.
>
>
>
> "Lanwench [MVP - Exchange]" wrote:
>
> > Kevin Marquette <Kevin Marquette@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:
> > > I think I have found a bug in explorer, but cannot find any solution
> > > to it.
> > >
> > > When my users log onto a computer in the domain, they may or may not
> > > have all the mapped drives they need listed in explorer. If I drop
> > > to a command prompt, I can see and use the drives just fine. If I
> > > relog or use task manager to kill and run explorer.exe the drives
> > > will then show up.
> > >
> > > It does not matter if the logon script is part of the GPO or listed
> > > as the user's personal login script. I do use a custom vbs script,
> > > but using a simple net use batch file reproduces the same problem.
> > >
> > > I do set the drives to persist so repeat logins to the same machine
> > > work correctly, but my user base is very mobile and use any number of
> > > different machines. It's a large group of dental students working
> > > chair side in any one of the 200 dental chairs available.
> > >
> > > I also think it's a timing issue. If the scripts are ran after the
> > > user is logged in explorer works.
> >
> > I've seen this before -
> >
> > a) implement the "Always Wait for Network" GPO setting -
> > http://www.boyce.us/gp/gpcontent.asp?ID=39
> >
> > b) don't use persistently mapped drives - it's going to cause you problems
> > somehow, somewhere, sometime. I don't know VBS except how to spell it, but
> > in a batch file login script, you could do something like:
> >
> > net use * /del /y
> > net use m: \\server\share1 /persistent:no
> > net use n: \\server\share2 /persistent:no
> > net use o: \\server\share3 /persistent:no
> >
> >
> >
> >

Kevin Marquette <KevinMarquette@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:
> I take that back, this will work for us. I was confusing that policy
> with a different one.
>
> Thank You.

You're welcome - hope it helps.

>
> "Kevin Marquette" wrote:
>
>> My scripts are running. It's not a matter of waiting for the network
>> to be available. I can go to that machine and access those drives
>> from a command prompt.
>>
>> I am thinking it's a timing delay in explorer. Setting that policy
>> creates a huge delay in the logon process and that mitigates this
>> problem. So your solution does work, but the delay that it causes
>> for all users is too long.
>>
>> I would like to figure out how to fix explorer to display them
>> properly.
>>
>>
>>
>> "Lanwench [MVP - Exchange]" wrote:
>>
>>> Kevin Marquette <Kevin Marquette@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:
>>>> I think I have found a bug in explorer, but cannot find any
>>>> solution to it.
>>>>
>>>> When my users log onto a computer in the domain, they may or may
>>>> not have all the mapped drives they need listed in explorer. If I
>>>> drop to a command prompt, I can see and use the drives just fine.
>>>> If I relog or use task manager to kill and run explorer.exe the
>>>> drives will then show up.
>>>>
>>>> It does not matter if the logon script is part of the GPO or listed
>>>> as the user's personal login script. I do use a custom vbs script,
>>>> but using a simple net use batch file reproduces the same problem.
>>>>
>>>> I do set the drives to persist so repeat logins to the same machine
>>>> work correctly, but my user base is very mobile and use any number
>>>> of different machines. It's a large group of dental students
>>>> working chair side in any one of the 200 dental chairs available.
>>>>
>>>> I also think it's a timing issue. If the scripts are ran after the
>>>> user is logged in explorer works.
>>>
>>> I've seen this before -
>>>
>>> a) implement the "Always Wait for Network" GPO setting -
>>> http://www.boyce.us/gp/gpcontent.asp?ID=39
>>>
>>> b) don't use persistently mapped drives - it's going to cause you
>>> problems somehow, somewhere, sometime. I don't know VBS except how
>>> to spell it, but in a batch file login script, you could do
>>> something like:
>>>
>>> net use * /del /y
>>> net use m: \\server\share1 /persistent:no
>>> net use n: \\server\share2 /persistent:no
>>> net use o: \\server\share3 /persistent:no