Windows map network drive for all users

Map a network drive to get to it from File Explorer in Windows without having to look for it or type its network address each time.

1. Open File Explorer from the taskbar or the Start  menu, or press the Windows logo key  + E.

2. Select This PC from the left pane. Then, on the File Explorer ribbon, select More  > Map network drive.

   

3. In the Drive list, select a drive letter. (Any available letter will do.)

4. In the Folder box, type the path of the folder or computer, or select Browse to find the folder or computer. To connect every time you sign in to your PC, select Reconnect at sign-in.

5. Select Finish.

Note: If you can’t connect to a network drive or folder, the computer you’re trying to connect to might be turned off, or you might not have the correct permissions. Try contacting your network administrator.

Map a network drive to get to it from File Explorer in Windows without having to look for it or type its network address each time.

1. Open File Explorer from the taskbar or the Start  menu, or press the Windows logo key  + E.

2. Select This PC from the left pane. Then, on the Computer tab, select Map network drive. 

   

3. In the Drive list, select a drive letter. (Any available letter will do.)

4. In the Folder box, type the path of the folder or computer, or select Browse to find the folder or computer. To connect every time you sign in to your PC, select Reconnect at sign-in.

5. Select Finish.

Note: If you can’t connect to a network drive or folder, the computer you’re trying to connect to might be turned off, or you might not have the correct permissions. Try contacting your network administrator.

This article explains how to map a network drive in Windows 11, so you can easily access shared files from another computer on your network. We’ll also look at what the other computer must do to enable the share and what to watch for if you’re having issues mapping a network drive.

How to Map a Network Drive in Windows 11

It takes just a few steps to map a network drive via the This PC window.

1. Open File Explorer (WIN+E).

2. Right-click This PC from the left column, and select Map network drive.

   If you don’t see anything in a left column, go to View > Show > Navigation pane.

3. Pick a letter from the menu you want the network drive to be identified as. This can be any letter in the list.

4. Browse for, or type the path to, the shared folder the network drive should be mapped to.

   If the share requires a specific password, you should choose Connect using different credentials. You’ll be prompted to provide a username (and password) that has permission to access the other computer.

5. Select Finish.

   You might have to wait a few seconds for Windows to establish the connection, after which you can access the share like you would a flash drive or local hard drive and rename how it appears in This PC.

How to Automatically Map a Network Drive in Windows 11

The primary way to set up an automatic network drive is to follow the steps above and choose Reconnect at sign-in during setup. This will make the same network drive resume the next time you sign on.

If you’re managing several computers at once, or even one computer with several users, and you need to map the network drive on all of them, automatically, there’s a script you can build to get the job done. The same method works for creating the network drive for other users on a local computer; see the steps below for instructions.

How to Map a Network Drive in Windows 11 for All Users

Mapping a network drive for all users at once is much easier than following the above steps individually under each account. Follow these steps whether you’re a network admin that needs to perform this trick across your entire network of computers, or you want the local accounts on your PC to be able to reach the same shared files with ease.

1. Use the net use command to create a script that will auto-connect the mapped network drive.

   Here’s an example, where the driver letter will be assigned automatically, and the connection to the share (serverfiles, in this example) will persist (/p:yes) each time the user logs in:

   net use * "\serverfiles" /p:yes
   

   The script needs to be saved as a BAT file so Windows will execute it when the user logs in.

   Visit the net use command link above for examples of embedding credentials in the command. It’s necessary if the computer sharing the files requires a password.

2. Open the All Users Startup folder. One easy way to find it is to run this command in the Run dialog box (WIN+R):

   shell:common startup
   

3. Copy the BAT file from step 1 into the folder you uncovered in step 2.

Now, when any user logs in on that computer, the network drive you set up in the script will automatically connect.

Troubleshooting Mapped Network Drives

A few things must be in place before network sharing is allowed in Windows 11.

If you’re sure your computer is on the same network as the one sharing the files (that’s a necessity), keep these things in mind if you’re having trouble mapping a network drive or using it once you’ve mapped it:

Network Discovery

Network discovery lets you see network computers and their shares. Make sure it’s turned on in Control Panel.

1. Open Control Panel, and navigate to Network and Internet > Network and Sharing Center > Change advanced sharing settings.

2. Expand the section that says current profile, and select Turn on network discovery.

   The computer doing the sharing (i.e., the one you’re attempting to connect to) needs to have selected Turn on file and printer sharing from this same screen before they can share with you over the network.

3. Select Save changes, and then try again to map the network drive.

Password-Protected Sharing

You must either have the login credentials for the user sharing the files with you, or their computer needs to be set up to allow sharing even if a password isn’t provided.

In the All Networks section, they can set up the latter by selecting Turn off password protected sharing via the same screen as above.

Share Permissions

You can configure the share to allow a certain number of users simultaneously. It can even be limited to viewing the files only, meaning you can’t edit or add anything to the network drive. To be given these permissions, the person managing the network share must make changes from their side.

If they access the Sharing tab of the folder’s properties, the Advanced Sharing button is an option to limit how many users can be utilizing the share at once. On that same screen, in the Permissions area, the manager of the files can give you complete control or edit access.

Full Share Path

Make sure you’re accessing the true path to the share. Typing the path manually when setting up the network drive can result in a mistake. You can obtain the share path from the computer sharing the resources.

Open File Explorer and navigate to Network from the navigation pane on that computer. Open the computer name you see there, and then find the folder you want to access. That’s the path you need to enter into your computer to complete the mapped drive.

The same path is accessible from the folder itself. Right-click it, go into the Sharing tab and copy the text from the Network Path area.

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While users can easily create a shortcut for the network share in Windows 10, they have to access the shortcut every time they need to open the network share. A better solution for accessing files from the network is to map a network drive so that it appears in Computer and File Explorer as a Drive instead of the folder.

In this article, we will discuss how to map a network drive successfully and easily using Windows File Explorer and command-line. You can use it any way you are easy with. This article also answers the following queries:

• How to map a network drive in Windows 10
• How to automatically map a network drive upon computer restart
• How to map a network drive for all users
• How to map a network drive using GPO, PowerShell, and File Explorer

Mapping a network drive using File Explorer

To make sure that you are connected to the network where the shared folder exists and is accessible, look at the image provided below for your reference.

Now that we have ensured that the network folder is visible to which we want to assign a drive letter so that we can proceed towards mapping the network location as a drive.

Step 1: Open File Explorer with the right options

Open File Explorer and go to ‘This PC’ on the left top corner below the title bar in the menu bar and select the computer tab from the network section.

Step 2: Open network drive creation wizard

Select “Map Network Drive” and a wizard will appear.

Here Select the drive letter from the available drop-down menu and you can either type in the correct address of the shared network folder by yourself or you can browse it.

Press OK and keep ‘Reconnect at sign-in’ checked as this will connect the drive automatically at startup. Click Finish.

Step 3: Using different user credentials

If you have a different username and password for the folder you are accessing you should also keep the ‘Connect using different credentials’ checked.

Once you press finish it will ask for the password and username first you need to enter the name of the network location as shown in the image below then type the username followed by ‘backslash()’

Type the password and it’s done.

Map a network drive using PowerShell

You can also do this using the PowerShell 3.0 here is the equivalent command in PowerShell for what we did in the explorer:

New-PSDrive -Name P -PSProvider FileSystem -Root “\Server01Public” -Credential userdomain -Persist

After the ‘Name’ flag you may write the desired the drive letter you want to assign we have assigned ‘Z’ in our example

The ‘Credential’ flag is equivalent to checking the ‘connect using different credentials’ option. If you skip this option you won’t get the last prompt that has been shown in the small windows asking for the username and password.

The ‘Persist’ flag is equivalent to checking the ‘Reconnect at sign-in’ in the explorer. You can find your username from the settings>Accounts>Your info here the one that is hidden with the purple box is your username.

Your password is the one that you use to log in the computer however it should not be the pin that windows 10 provides to make logins quicker.

You can find your domain from the system properties. The name after the full computer name is what your computer will be using it as a domain name in the network.

Mapping a network drive for all users

This method will work for only one PC having multiple users.

Create a batch file with the following commands in it:

net use Z: /delete

net use Z: "\DESKTOP-FK154L3softwares" /user:DESKTOP-FK154L3pavilionhp VMware

Here “Z” is the drive we are going to map after that it has the address of the location that I want to map “DESKTOP-FK154L3” which is my domain, pavilionhp is my username and vmware is my password. Copy the second line and paste into the cmd to see if it works

Now save the text file you just created rename it to whatever you like and make its extension from “.txt” to “.bat”(more on this at the end of the article). Your final text file should like the one shown in the image above.

C:ProgramDataMicrosoftWindowsStart MenuProgramsStartU

Paste the above-mentioned address in the address bar of My computer and paste the newly created bat file into it. You may face issues browsing the directory directly as it is a hidden directory so you should stick with copy-pasting the address into the address bar. That’s it now every time the PC starts, it will make the mapping of this remote directory on to this computer for all the users that login to it.

In the end, you can use either of the methods both works flawlessly given that you don’t mess up the credentials and give the right path. You can use the one with which you are comfortable with. Mapping a network folder does give us a handy shortcut as explained above however you should at least notify your IT department of the mapped folder if you are using this feature in an organization though there aren’t any issues that a typical home user will face using this functionality.

This feature is most useful when you have configured a network drive with your router so you can map it as a drive in other computers saving others through the difficulty of understanding the complexity. There are also some 3^rd party applications that give the same facility but it is a total no brainer to use a third party app if the available options in the Windows already work well.

Also see:

I had the same problem where a Bulk Copy Job (BCP) on SQL Server needed to write a file out to a different server, managed by a different group in the organization.

The trick is to get the drive mapped as the user that the BCP job is using.
You map the drive as a dedicated active directory account that has permissions for the desired destination, what some call a service account. I had to work with my AD folks to get one setup.
To find out what user account is being used by BCP run this command from a SQL Server Query window:

EXEC xp_cmdshell 'ECHO %USERDOMAIN%%USERNAME%

When mapping the drive, use whoami at the command prompt.

In my case, I was unable to be logged into the SQL Server as the SYSTEM account, so I built a batch job that could then be executed by Task Scheduler, but run AS the SYSTEM account.
I put commands in the batch job to write the results out to a text file, since I wouldn’t be able to see it.

** Batch job below **

ECHO ON

ECHO This will map the drive, but is being run by task scheduler AS the user SYSTEM

ECHO which should make it accessible to the user SYSTEM

ECHO List the existing drives first.

net use >> c:TestSystemNetUseOutput.txt

net use R: \MyRemoteServerMyDirectory /P:Yes /u:MyDomainMyUsername pa$$word

ECHO the /P switch makes the drive remain after reboot

ECHO List the existing drives with the new mapping

net use >> c:TestSystemNetUseOutput.txt

ECHO See what user this batch job ran under

whoami >> c:TestSystemNetUseOutput.txt

ECHO need to exit to allow the job to finish

EXIT

** I hope this helps someone else **

If you frequently need to connect to a remote folder or a drive shared on your network, mapping the drive or the folder location on your Windows 11 PC will save you a big chunk of time. Plus, the entire experience of using a mapped network drive feels identical to using any other drive plugged into your PC.

If all of this sounds perfect to you, let’s quickly take a look at how you can map a network drive on Windows 11.

Before we begin with the steps, you need to make sure that Windows 11 is configured to find other PCs and devices on your network.

First, configure Windows for Network drives

Click the Start button and type in ‘Control Panel’. Click on the search result or the open button.

Once inside Control Panel, click on ‘Network and Internet’.

Click on ‘Network and Sharing Center’.

Click on ‘Change advanced sharing settings’.

Click on ‘Turn on network discovery’ and then click the ‘Save changes’ button. Accept any prompt that may appear.

After this change, your PC should be able to find your network folder or drive and be discoverable by other PCs and devices on your network.

It’s time to map the drive to your Windows 11 PC.

5 Ways to map a drive on Windows 11

Once you have configured your Windows 11 PC for mapping as given above, you can now go ahead and map a drive on your PC. Here are various methods to map a drive on Windows 11 OS.

Method 1: Using File Explorer

Head over to ‘This PC’ by pressing the Win key + e buttons. From the Quick Access window, click on the shortcut for ‘This PC’.

The next step is to click on the three-dot menu and from this list of options, select ‘Map a network drive’.

You should see a popup titled ‘Map Network Drive’. On this popup, select your preferred drive letter for the remote location, enter the URL of your network folder and click ‘Finish’. You can also click on the ‘Browse’ button and select the shared folder.

Tips

• If you want Windows to automatically reconnect to the network folder after boot, tick the ‘Reconnect at sign-in’ option.
• If you use a different set of login credentials to access your shared folder or drive than your PC, tick the ‘Connect using different credentials’ option. Windows should ask for the username and password when it attempts to connect to the remote location. Tick the ‘Remember my credentials’ to save your credentials, instead of entering them every time you connect.

After verifying the credentials, Windows should open the remote folder right away.

You should be able to find the newly added network location in your ‘This PC’ window.

That’s it! You have successfully mapped a network location to your Windows PC.

Another, rather simpler way to connect to the shared drive is to navigate to the shared network drive or folder in File Explorer, and then use the context menu to map it as a drive on your PC. 

There are a couple of ways that you can access the shared drive via File Explorer. First up, press Win+E to open File Explorer. Now click on Network in the left pane. 

Select the system that’s sharing the drive by double-clicking on it.

Then right-click on the folder or the drive to map and select Map network drive…

The familiar ‘Map Network Drive’ window will open up. Select the drive letter for the mapped drive, and then click on Finish to map the drive.

Your drive/folder will now be mapped and available on the ‘This PC’ page.

If you know the IP address of the system that’s sharing the drive, then you can simply click on the address bar and type the IP address in the following format:

\IP_address

Make sure to change IP_Address with the IP address of the sharing network.

Then right-click on the drive/folder that you want to map and select Map network drive as shown above.

If you want to check the folders that are shared by you, you can either enter your own IP address or type 127.0.0.1 instead (which directs to the local host). 

Method 3: Using CMD

You can also map a drive in Windows 11 via the CMD. Use the guide below to get you started. 

Press Windows + S  on your keyboard and search for CMD. Click on ‘Run as administrator’ once it shows up in your search results. 

Enter the following command and press Enter on your keyboard. Replace ‘DLetter’ with the drive letter of your choice and replace ‘PATH’ with the path to the particular folder you wish to map.

net use DLetter: \PATH /PERSISTENT: YES

The selected drive will now be mapped within Windows 11 and it should now show up in the File Explorer. 

Method 4: Using PowerShell

Use the guide below to easily map a drive within PowerShell instead. 

Press Windows + S on your keyboard and search for PowerShell. Click on ‘Run as administrator’ once it shows up in your search results. 

Now type in the following command and press Enter on your keyboard to execute it. Replace DLetter with the assigned letter of the concerned drive and replace PATH with the path to the folder you wish to map.

New-PSDrive -Name "DLetter" -PSProvider "FileSystem" -Root "\PATH" -Persist

The selected drive and location should now be mapped within Windows 11. Open the File Explorer and the drive should now appear within This PC.

Method 5: Map a drive for all users at once

If there are multiple users on your computer that also require access to the shared drive, it’s much more convenient to map a drive for all users at once. To do so, we’ll first have to create a batch (.bat) file. Here’s how to do so: 

Press Start, type notepad, and then open it.

Then type the following command:

net use * "\serverfiles" /p:yes

Make sure to replace ‘server’ with the network name or the IP address of the user who’s doing the sharing, and ‘files’ with the folder, drive, or file that you want to map.

Then click on File in the top left corner.

Select Save as.

Choose a location to save and give the file a name. Then change the file extension from .txt to .bat.

Then select All files from the “Save as type” drop-down menu.

Then click on Save.

Once saved, go to the location and copy this .bat file. 

Now, press Win+R to open the RUN box. Now type the following:

shell:common startup

And click OK.

This will open the startup apps folder. Paste the .bat file here by pressing Ctrl+V, or right-clicking and selecting the Paste button.

When prompted, click on Continue.

From now on, whichever user logs on to your system will automatically connect to the network drive as mentioned in the script.  

How to find the path of a mapped network drive

You can easily get the full UNC path to your mapped network drive using one of the guides below. Follow the one that best suits your current needs to get you started. 

Method 1: Using CMD

Press Windows + S on your keyboard and search for CMD. Click on run as administrator once it shows up in your search results. 

Enter the following command and press Enter on your keyboard. 

net use

You will now get a list of all the network devices connected to your PC for the current user account. Your mapped network drive will also show up in this list, with its full UNC path mentioned on your screen. 

Method 2: Using PowerShell

Press Windows + S on your keyboard and search for PowerShell. Click on ‘Run as administrator’. 

Now enter the following command and press Enter on your keyboard to execute it.  

Get-WmiObject Win32_NetworkConnection | ft "RemoteName","LocalName" -A

All the network drives currently accessible through your PC and user account should now be available on your screen with their UNC paths as well.

How to disconnect a Mapped Network Drive

Once your business with the shared network drive is finished, you should disconnect and unmap the network drive. Doing so is a cinch. Here’s how to go about it:

Method 1: Using File Explorer

Open File Explorer by pressing Win+E. Right-click on the mapped drive and select Disconnect.

Alternatively, click on the three-dot icon in the toolbar above. 

Then select Disconnect network drive.

Then select the mapped drive and click OK.

The network drive will now be unmapped.

Method 2: Using CMD

Open an elevated instance of the command prompt.

Then type the following command:

net use z: /Delete

Replace ‘z’ with the network drive’s letter.

Then press Enter

If you have multiple drives mapped, type the following to disconnect them all:

net use * /Delete

Then hit Enter.

Quick tip: If you get an error message saying that “There are no entries in the list”, try running the command prompt without administrator privileges.

When prompted, type Y.

Then hit Enter.

Your mapped network drive will now be deleted. You can use these commands in the PowerShell terminal as well. Also, if you aren’t receiving any entries with the elevated PowerShell, try running PowerShell without administrator privileges. 

I am unable to map a network drive in Windows 11

There is a common registry fix that seems to get network drives working on almost every system no matter the issue that you are facing.

Map a drive first using any of the methods given above. When that is not working, use the registry editor fix given below.

In the guide below, we talk about creating a new registry value on your PC that should help you easily map network drives without any issues. 

Press Windows + S on your keyboard and search for Regedit. Click and launch the app once it shows up in your results. 

Navigate to the following path given below. You can also copy-paste the same in your address bar at the top. 

ComputerHKEY_CURRENT_USERNetwork

Your drive should be listed under ‘network’ denoted by its drive letter. Click and select the drive letter folder and hit delete on your keyboard.

Click on ‘Ok’ to confirm your choice. 

Navigate to the following path given below. 
HKEY_CURRENT_USERSOFTWAREMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionExplorerMap Network Drive MRU

The registry values you find for mapped network drives in this location will be different depending on your system, configuration, and mapped drive. Find any string value associated with the previously mapped drive on your system and hit delete on your keyboard. Click on ‘Ok’ to confirm your choice and delete these values. 

All previous registry values that could conflict with your current setup should now be removed. Simply restart your system and use one of the guides above to map a network drive to your system again. 

Once done, launch registry editor again and navigate to the path given below. Replace DLetter with the drive letter of the drive you recently mapped to your PC. 
HKEY_CURRENT_USERNetworkDLetter

Click and select the drive letter on your left and now right-click on the empty area on your right and select ‘New’. 

Now select ‘DWORD (32-bit) value’. 

Enter ‘ProviderFlags’ as the ‘Value Name’ and set the ‘Value data’ to ‘1’. 

Click on ‘Ok’ now. 

Restart your system for good measure. 

And that’s it! The selected drive should now be mapped to your system without any issues. 

Have a question? Let us know in the comments below.