I am curious what everyone is doing to map drives with windows server 2003 and a vista/xp environment.1. VBSript or Group Policy? Is there a preference and what works best.2. Reliablity. We currently run VBSript to map drives. Mapped drives are unreliable as someties they are there and sometimes not. If a machine sits for about 5 mins then sometimes they appear.3. Printers. What is everyone doing to map printers?

Hi,I prefer Group Policy Preferences! A real script killer and I always recommend my customers to use GPP.Read more here:http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=42e30e3f-6f01-4610-9d6e-f6e0fb7a0790&displaylang=enGPP can also map printers and a lot more....Jens Ole Kragh MCITP, MCTS, MCT http://jensolekragh.spaces.live.com/

Hi, Home Directories are mapped in the profile of each user to H:\ I do this as well as Folder Redirection. Eg. H: mapped to \\server\users\%username% I don't use a lot of other mapped drives but the ones I do use are mapped via BATCH file and have never failed. I have thousands of users and have never had a complaint. Basically I create a batch file with net use X: \\server\share I put the Batch file in the NETLOGON (scripts) share and then call them as a login script via Group Policy. For printers I use Kixscript and Con2prt.exe. For some reason I have found that it is the most reliable program that I have ever used. I actually use Kixscript for all my logging to as it interacts with MySQL server and logs all my logons, logoffs, startups and shutdowns. I have thousands of users and hundreds of printers and they get added everytime with no issue. http://www.kixtart.org/http://www.sd61.bc.ca/windows2000/downloads/con2prt.exe Here is my print.kix file code ;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;; ;;;; ;;AssignDefaultPrintertoWorkstationScript;; ;;;; ;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;; ;;DeclareVariables ;;SpecifyprintershareinUNCformat $MyPrinter="\\Server\MyPrinterShareName";NoSpaces $MyPrinter2="\\Server\MyPrinterShareName2" ;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;; ;;SetRoomNumberVariablefromWorkStationName;; ;;Adjustnumber4forthenumberofspacestohave;; ;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;; $RoomNumber=substr(@wksta,1,4) ;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;; ;;SetprintersforRoom105here;; ;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;; IF$RoomNumber="R105" cls colorn/w $msg="Pleasewaitforlogintocomplete..."+chr(10) ?$msg colorw/n shell"con2prt/f" shell"con2prt/cd$MyPrinter" ?"User"+@USERID+"authenticatedtonetwork"+chr(10) ELSE ENDIF ;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;; ;;SetprintersforIndividualWorkstationsHere;; ;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;; IF@WKSTA="R104-00" cls colorn/w $msg="Pleasewaitforlogintocomplete..."+chr(10) ?$msg colorw/n shell"con2prt/f" shell"con2prt/c$MyPrinter";addthisprinterbutnotdefault shell"con2prt/cd$MyPrinter2";addsthisprinteraswellandmakesdefault ?"User"+@USERID+"authenticatedtonetwork"+chr(10) ELSE ENDIF Cheers, Lara lforbes

Hello, 1. Based on my research, when mapping a drive using Group Policy, it is implemented through logon script, they are actually the same thing. 2. When you find the map drives disappear, it may be caused by the fast logon feature. You can configure the following group policies to disable fast logon on these clients to see whether this issue is resolved now. a. Click Start, and click Run.b. Type "gpedit.msc" in the text box, and click OK. c. Edit the policy, Go to Computer Configuration\Administrative Templates\System\Logon\Always wait for the network at computer startup and logon, and select "Enabled", and click OK.d. Go to User Configuration\Administrative Templates\System\Scripts\Run logon scripts synchronously, and select "Enabled", and click OK.e. Reboot the computer to test this issue again. 3. Please find below the steps to be performed for mapping printer through the group policy. If you have Windows Server 2003 R2, you may also use Printer Management console to deploy printers.a. Create a text file called 'map_printers.vbs'b. paste the following code into the file'-------------------------------------------' Windows Logon Script for mapping printers.Set objNetwork = CreateObject("WScript.Network")objNetwork.AddWindowsPrinterConnection "file://computername/printersharename"'-------------------------------------------c. now, place a reference to the map_printers.vbs in the users regular logon script. Note, that you may get an error message if you running the script on the users computer who is sharing the printer. The next time the user logs on to the computer, the printer should map automatically. You would need to perform the same tasks which you had performed for configuring the Login ScriptLet me know if you face any issue. If you need further assistance, please don't hesitate to let me know.Best regards,Tom ZhangTom Zhang MSFT

Dear Customer, I just wanted to say hi, and to see how things are going. I haven't heard back from you yet and I was wondering if there are any updates on the service request. Thanks. SincerelyTom Zhang MSFT