My setup: Dell Inspiron notebook, 4GB RAM, 250GB HDDWas running Vista Ultimate 32-bitNow upgraded in-place to Windows 7 Ultimate 32-bit650GB of additional network storage via mapped drive Z: (via batch file, shortcut in Startup folder)All told the upgrade to Windows 7 was painless. System has been very stable. The other day I had cause to install Adobe Reader and it failed consistently with an error 1327 "Invalid drive Z:".Opening Explorer showed that drive Z: was connected and indeed was working fine.Google showed a solution: remap the drive using "Run As: administrator" option, which I did, and yes, Adobe Reader then installed OK.OK, I thought, I will set the shortcut in the Startup folder so it always will "run as administrator" ... so I did this, and rebooted, and the drive was not mapped at all.I removed the "run as administrator" from the shortcut, and rebooted, and the drive was mapped OK.*** I was logged in using my user account, not the Administrator user account, however my user account is a member of the Administrators group.Q. what is it about the mapping that is different when it is "run as administrator" and not "run as administrator"?Q. is there any way of always mapping it with "run as administrator" as a startup script that will map it reliably?I have had a look at the file/folder security, but everything looks reasonable (e.g. Administrators have the rights to Read/Execute the script).

This is what I found when I Googled the problem initially. The issue has been around (with Adobe Reader) for some time:******************************It has nothing to do with compatibility with Vista, but rather the %HOMEDRIVE% environmental variable on the machine he's installing it on (e.g. his appears to be set to "P"). This has to do with how the installation was packaged originally and is something that's plagued Acrobat Reader as long as I've been familiar with it. Log in as an account with administrative privileges then nuke your HOMEDRIVE variable ("SET HOMEDRIVE= " from command line - no quotes). Then re-try your install. ****************************** It has to do with the fact that during installation, you change identity from your user to administrator, thus losing all your drive mappings. So if, say, "Documents" is on a network share, the installer wonders where it went. Makes sense in theory but is mucho annoying in practice. So here's how you solve it: 1. Disconnect the previously mapped network drive from Windows Explorer. 2. Right click on Command Prompt in the Start Menu and select Run As Administrator. 3. Type "Net Use y: \\servername\sharename" 4. Exit out of the command prompt 5. Open Windows Explorer 6. Click 'Map network drive' menu item 7. Select the y: drive and typed \\servername\sharename into the Folder box. Not very intuitive, but it works! EASIER WAY: If you already have a mapped network drive, just do steps 2-4 and it should work...essentially you map it once for the user, once for the administrator.

So ... I can live with the fact that Adobe Reader (and possibly other software) has "issues" at install time ... but I am still curious about why the startup batch file, set to Run As administrator, didn't run after a reboot, but when I took off the "Run As administrator" checkbox and rebooted, it was fine.

It has to do with the fact that during installation, you change identity from your user to administrator, thus losing all your drive mappings. So if, say, "Documents" is on a network share, the installer wonders where it went. Makes sense in theory but is mucho annoying in practice. So here's how you solve it: 1. Disconnect the previously mapped network drive from Windows Explorer. 2. Right click on Command Prompt in the Start Menu and select Run As Administrator. 3. Type "Net Use y: \\servername\sharename" 4. Exit out of the command prompt 5. Open Windows Explorer 6. Click 'Map network drive' menu item 7. Select the y: drive and typed \\servername\sharename into the Folder box. Not very intuitive, but it works! EASIER WAY: If you already have a mapped network drive, just do steps 2-4 and it should work...essentially you map it once for the user, once for the administrator. Wow, thanks a ton Frosticle! I had the same issue here where I work as I have a network drive (H:) mapped to one of our servers and I have been looking for this solution for the longest time now. And to think that it was so simple. Why didn't I think of that? Thanks again!