How to Map Network Drives Using Group Policy in Windows Server

Working in an environment where a network is deployed than mapping network drives is one of the most conjoint tasks for a network administrator. It can be done using a script, but there is a group policy setting that we can use which will ultimately save us with the time in the scripting writing effort.

We will use Windows server 2012 as an example but same can be applied to the other servers as well. First, we will open the Group Policy Management in our windows server and right click on the folder where you want to create the new group policy and click on the first option, in this case, we are implementing it on “Systems”

Rename the new GPO to Network Drive

Click Ok and it will create the new GPO.

Right click on edit and select “Edit”

It will open Group Policy Management Editor and browse to the “Drive Maps” by clicking Preference under User Configuration and then select Windows settings

Right-click on it and click on “New” to choose “Mapped Drive”

It will open up New Drive Properties window

Now change the value of action from “” to “Create”, enter the path which you want to share, select the drive letter, select show the drive and show all drives.

Press Apply and click on “Common” tab to check the box of select item-level targeting.

Click on targeting as it will open a new window of targeting editor

Click on new item and browse to user.

On the next window select the pop down menu option beside “Users”

Enter the username in our case it is alpha beta, after entering the name click on check names.

PRESS Ok and click on new item and select security group.

On the next window select the pop down menu option beside “Group”

In Select Group enter the security group as in this case it is “All users” and click check names

Press Ok and go back to “Common” and press Ok.

Finally, we have mapped a network drives and now log in to any of the client Computer and run gpupdate /force in command prompt and then open the Computer drive you will see your desired drive there.

Muhammad Imran Habib

Imran is a technology evangelist with 8 years of experience working with some of the Industry leading companies. Imran's expertise includes On-Prem/Virtual Infrastructure deployments, IT Solutions for SMEs, End User Computing Support.

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