Mapping drive letters to local folders
Solution 1:
Good news! The subst
command still works in Windows 7!
To create a new mapping:
subst x: C:\Folder\Example
To remove a mapping:
subst x: /D
Solution 2:
Alternative:
net use x: \\localhost\c$\Folder\Example
The difference between net use
& subst
below break
subst
When a share becomes unavailable subst
will try over and over again to re-connect severely impacting performance of your PC as it tries to re-connect. This is less common when mapping local files as it will only occur if you say re-name the folders in the path. The resolution if this does occur is subst x: /d
net use
net use
was introduced in win2k/xp to provide an alternative to this. When net use
is used to connect to a location and that location becomes unreachable windows will report drive as disconnected and not try to re-connect until user tries to re-connect to resources on the mapped drive. This resolves the performance issues noted in subst
For more information on both commands you can query via the command line with /?
net use /?
& subst /?
Solution 3:
The best way to do this across bootup is to put it in the registry. Open regedit.exe and navigate to
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\DOS Devices
Add a new REG_SZ value and name it X:
, where X is your drive letter
The value should be the path in this form
\DosDevices\C:\Folder\Example