windows 7 enterprise : 'net use' fails with 'system error 50 has occurred'

Windows 7 Enterprise SP1 x64

I was having problems mapping a local drive to a network shared folder, so I opened cmd.exe and ran :

> net use
> System error 50 has occurred
> The request is not supported.

I've Google'd this extensively and apparently a lot of people have this problem, but very few have found solutions.

I investigated some of root causes others uncovered , such as mangled registry key values at :

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\NetworkProvider\HwOrder

How can I further diagnose this issue ?

What could have caused a very basic system-level command such as net use to begin failing ?

but in those respects my system seems to be fine

Solution 1:

Start regedit.exe, and change the ProviderOrder value in the following registry keys

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\NetworkProvider\HwOrder
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\NetworkProvider\Order

from ,,RDPNP,LanmanWorkstation,webclient to RDPNP,LanmanWorkstation,webclient.

Source: To map Network Disk in Windows 7 error — SOLVED