A mapped drive is a shortcut to a drive that’s located on a different computer. The shortcut on your computer looks like a local hard drive with its own letter assigned to it. The steps below will show you how to create a Mapped Drive via GPO Preferences on Windows Machines thereby making them persistent across all computers (PCs). This procedure is relatively straightforward and easier than using scripts and speeds up the login process. Please see How to Mount a Network Drive, What is GPO and how can it be launched in Windows, how to Fix failed to create new Scheduled Task RemoteException, how to Fix unable to update the password value provided for the new password and Password Policy, and how to setup Microsoft Authenticator.
Ensure you have the Remote Server Administration Tool (RSAT) installed on your PC. This can be downloaded from the link below. See the following links on reasons to use RSAT. How to Install RSAT on Windows 10 via Windows features instead of connecting to your Active Directory environment to perform every task. Please see how to install RSAT tools: DNS manager console missing from RSAT tools on Windows 10, and how to install RSAT on Windows Server.
Note: Starting with Windows 10 October 2018 Update, RSAT is included as a set of Features on Demand in Windows 10 itself.
Create a Mapped Drive via GPO Preferences
I will be using the Group Policy Management Console from the Server Manager. Since I am currently performing this task on VirtualBox as shown below.
1. Open the Group Policy Management Console
Now, Expand the Domain and locate the organizational unit you wish to link the GPO to as shown below. Right-click on the organizational unit as shown below and select Create a GPO in this domain and link it here.
This will open up the new GPO window where you will have to enter the Desired GPO name as shown below. And click on ok.
Edit the Newly Created GPO
Now right-click on the newly created GPO as shown below. Click on Edit
This will open the Group Policy Management Editor as shown below. Follow the steps as shown below.
User Configuration -> Preferences -> Windows Settings -> Drive Mappings
Right-click on the Drive Maps, select New and click on Mapped Drive
Populate the New Drive Properties
This will open up the new drive properties windows. as shown below. Currently, it has no settings but this will be configured in the next figure below.
Under the General Tab Settings, in the location textbox, enter the path to the share (folder) you want to map a drive or use the “…” attached to search for the location manually. Select a drive letter, and select create for action.
Check the reconnect box as shown below, and in Label as textbox: This is optional
Click on Apply, this is because we still want to enter more settings in the Common Properties windows as shown below.
Under the Common Tab Settings. Now select. Client-Level Targetting so it applies only to the TechDirectSG Team.
– Select Item-level Targeting
– Click the Targeting Button.
Click on the “New Item” drop-down window and click on the Security group as shown below.
Note: You can also select an organization to target etc as shown below.
Now, let’s add the IT Team
After selecting the group, click on ok. The window below will be shown.
Next, click on ok to complete the configuration as shown below.
The end result of the configured policy is shown below.
And this is all that needs to be done 😉 You have this setting applied immediately, users can log out and re-login in or run the gpupdate /force from the domain controller. This will ensure the settings are applied immediately.
I hope you found this blog post helpful on how to create a Mapped Drive via GPO Preferences. Please let me know in the comment section if you have any questions.
