Map Windows My Documents Folder to Network Drive
How to Point you’re My Documents folder to another location.
We have a network storage drive at work, which is backed up nightly. Since I started I have been saving all my documents on the local pc and then moving them to the backup server. I decided that there had to be a better way, so I mapped the My Documents folder to my backup folder on the companies network storage server. It is very simple to do. You can also map to a different local drive or folder. This technique can be applied to the My Documents, My Pictures, My Movies, and My Video folders as well.
Right click on the My Documents Icon and select properties
The folder properties will be displayed. Notice that the target (C:\Documents and Settings\username\My Documents) is the default windows target. This is useful if you want to change back.
Now select the “Move..” button and choose the folder you want to use as you’re My Documents folder. I selected the L:\ drive on my computer, which is a mapped network drive.
If you would like to return to the default settings, for any reason, click the Restore Default button. The folder is now mapped to my network share. Select apply to save the changes. Remember, this can be applied to the My Documents, My Pictures, My Video, and My Music folders on your computer also. The steps are the same.
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on April 15th, 2007 at 2:38 pm
anyway, we can do this via a logon script. I basically want to force all my users to have their MyDocuments on a shared drive. I want to create a logon script which shall ensure that any computer they log on from has the “L:” drive mapped to the shared drive where their respective “My Document” can reside. How can i achieve this?
rgds,
turbo1979
on April 15th, 2007 at 3:21 pm
Are you using active directory?
on May 31st, 2007 at 3:15 pm
I had the exact same idea as turbo1979. We at least are indeed using active directory.
I’d be very interested to know how you can do this via a script as well…
on May 31st, 2007 at 3:32 pm
I know that you can mount a drive using the net use command. I have used it in some backup batch scripts. Example: net use x: \\computername\C$ .
I’m not sure if you can use that in a log on script or not. Let me know if you
can get it to work.
Haven’t used Active Directory since I got out of school and I don’t think we ever messed with log on scripts.
on October 12th, 2007 at 10:27 am
Anyone come up with a way to do this with a login script? I know I can do it by hand, but I have hundreds of users and would like to just throw something like “net use ‘My Documents’ \\server\users\$username$”, if possible.
Anyone know the syntax I need to make this happen?
on November 12th, 2007 at 10:08 pm
http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/windows/xp/all/proddocs/en-us/net_use.mspx?mfr=true
on July 1st, 2008 at 5:05 pm
I suggest ONLY mapping the “My Documents” folder (so documents are backed up) but NOT local app settings. It appears to be done this way where I work (settings are stored on network share) and this breaks msn, skype, browser every day or second day – if the network comes up slowly for some reason, the apps all start, find no settings and start with defaults.
Which is royal pain. Any experience similar to this please feedback. Thx
on August 16th, 2008 at 4:38 pm
Yes, it is possible if you use AD. Follow the next steps:
1.- Create a script something like:
net use o: \\servername\FileServer
2.- Go to a user, Right click properties and click Profile tab.
3.- You will see there is a logon script field. Enter your script name.
4.- Paste your script file into C:\WINDOWS\SYSVOL\sysvol\domain.name\scripts
That should do it.
I am not sure if you can add the script in oder location and just point to that file in the Logon script field. I think I tried in the past and didn’t work for me.
Good luck.
on October 18th, 2008 at 11:13 am
I am a non-windows user administering an OS X server with some windows xp clients. User home directory is on the OS X server. I would like to set a script to run that would map the winxp users “My Documents”, “My Music” etc files to the relevant file in the network home directory. Any of you experts willing to share a script?
Thanks and have a great day.
on October 18th, 2008 at 11:21 am
After reading more about net use I’m not sure that this is the command I need. The network volume is already mounted automatically at login. The only thing I want to try to do is redirect the My Documents, My Music etc folders to the relevant folders in the OS X home directory, Documents, Music, Pictures and Movies. So can a script create symbolic links for the user as they login?
Thanks again.
Rick Davis
on November 3rd, 2008 at 2:04 pm
You’ll need a VBS script to map the My Documents to the relevant network volume. Something like this:
Dim WSHShell
Set WSHShell = CreateObject(”WScript.Shell”)
WSHShell.RegWrite “HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders\Personal”, “P:\”
WSHShell.RegWrite “HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders\My Pictures”, “P:\”
Then call the script in your batch file set to run on user login.
on January 4th, 2009 at 10:52 pm
thanks very much. i finally find an answer.
on February 19th, 2009 at 12:32 pm
You don’t have to use VB, you can use regini:
1) create a file somewhere where your users can read it named reg.txt with these lines for instance:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders
Personal = REG_EXPAND_SZ U:\Documents
My Pictures = REG_SZ U:\Documents\My Pictures
2) add a line to your logon script (for instance logon.cmd in \\server\netlogon):
regini \\server\netlogon\reg.txt
And you should be good to go.
on June 24th, 2009 at 8:49 pm
Do changes to the registry with regini.exe require administrator priviledges on the workstation?
on July 16th, 2009 at 7:55 am
I am looking to implement something like this in our office, we are using AD and have several network shares.
I want each person to have their own personal H:\ drive on the network, something like \\server\home\$user that is only accessible to the individual user (and admins). I also want the My Documents folder mapped to this location as well, it needs to be done silently (without user intervention) and automatically at logon.
on August 21st, 2009 at 10:24 pm
HELP!!!!
I am school tech director and and using windows server 2008 with active directory. All users have storage on the server but when a user saves to my documents, it saves to the local computer. How can I map my documents to save to user’s folder on the server. I have 140 users to worry about so the easier the better.
on September 1st, 2009 at 5:36 am
I tried all above solutions but nothing worked.
Log in as a normal user, redirect ‘My Documents” to the mapped drive of the users personal folder. You can also change more settings e.g desktop settings. Go to ‘My computer’ and disconnect the mapped drive of the users homedirectory. Now login as administrator, delete all files in the (hidden) folder for default user and copy all files from the folder of the user you first logged in as to the folder of the default user.
on September 28th, 2009 at 12:42 pm
You can accomplish this with folder redirection through Group Policy. If you are using Active Directory 2003 with WIN XP or Vista clients then load Group Policy Object Editor on one of your domain controllers. Create a new group policy and under User Configuration you will find a folder called WIndows Settings. Under Windows Settings there is a folder called Folder Redirection right click on this folder and select properties. At this point you are going to need a server share to point the my documents folder to. I also recommend redirecting the Desktop. If you right click on my documents and go to properties you can chooose “Basic – Redirect everyone’s folder to the same location”. Under Target folder location I choose Create a folder for each user under the root path. Under root path type in the path to your share ex. \\server\share
Under the settings tab I recommend making sure Grant the user exclusive rights to my documents is checked and Move the contents of my documents folder to the new location is checked. You MUST be careful though because once you apply this policy to users it could take a significant amount of time when they go to login. You will get the applying computer settings screen for a long time sometimes and basically what is happening is the server is copying the users my documents folder to the server. You probably want to pick someone you know well to try this out on at first. Then I suggest moving the users over to the new policy one at a time…and schedule the move with them for the end of the day. Have them logoff then move their user account into the new OU with the policy and have them log back in. This way if it takes an hour for their my documents to copy it will do it while they are at home….good luck.