Friday, January 28, 2011

Windows XP Insists Upon Reconnecting to Network Drive on Startup (Stop It)

I once mapped a network drive and accidentally checked Reconnect at logon. Now, no matter what I do, Windows insists upon connecting to that drive at startup. Here's what I've tried in order to stop it, with a liberal sprinkling of restarts in between steps:

  • NET USE /PERSISTENT:NO
  • NET USE S: /DELETE
  • Mapping a new drive to S: after persistence was turned off.
  • Deleting everything that matched the share's path (\\test\example) from the registry.
  • Disconnecting S:, then mapping a different drive to it (\\test\example2) with Reconnect at logon set. After a reboot, \\test\example2 was mapped. Then after running NET USE S: /D and NET USE /P:NO, rebooting again. Magically \\test\example (the original one) had remapped itself!
  • Checking All Users' (and my) Start Menu's Startup directory and local Logon Scripts (nothing in any of them).

At this point, I'm completely baffled. I can think of no other places where such a thing would be stored and no reason why the normal approach fails. Especially no reason for it to be able to reconnect to a different network drive on startup when set to, then revert to the original one when the new one is unmapped. But it's driving me crazy.

  • Is the machine a member of a domain? Could there be something in the domain's login scripts or GPO that is mapping the drive?

    Hammer Bro. : It is part of a domain, but I don't think they're part of the logon scripts. I'll do a little more digging, but I don't recall this drive existing until after I mapped it.
    Hammer Bro. : Wow. After asking the right people within the company, it is part of the domain's policy. I guess my memory was playing tricks on me. So thanks!
    From BillN

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