A mapped network drive can save you time by allocating a drive letter to a frequently accessed folder. Fiddling with networks and drive letters might sound a little technical, but the process is quick, straightforward, and great for productivity time savings.
After mapping a network drive, it will appear in File Explorer under a name you can set, and a drive letter which you choose during the setup process. Windows 10 will suggest a drive letter starting from the end of the alphabet. This is OK, but you can choose any letter that isn’t already used by the system, we chose ‘T’ for our Trusted Reviews work folder.
Once the letter is chosen and the drive is mapped, you can access the folder by this drive letter in command lines and so on – in our example it would be T: at the command prompt. Also, you can type T: in the address bar of File Explorer, but many will just double-click the new shortcut in ‘This PC’ to get to it quickly when loading and saving files.
What we used
- A Windows 10 PC
- A home network (Even if you have just one PC and one router, that’s OK)
Short version
- Open Windows File explorer and select ‘This PC’
- Choose Map network drive
- Select an unused drive letter and navigate to a folder
- Choose whether the network drive persists after reboots and say OK
- The network drive is now available in This PC and has been allocated a drive letter
Troubleshooting
Simply go to File Explorer, then ‘This PC’, then right-click the drive and choose ‘Disconnect’. Don’t worry, no files are being selected, just the reference to the folder. You have also now freed up the drive letter you allocated to the share.
There are a number of potential issues here, but the most likely is that you have network discovery and / or file and printer sharing turned off. To check and change these settings, type ‘sharing settings’ in the Windows search bar and select the ‘Manage Advanced Sharing Settings’ icon that Windows suggests. This will take you directly to the toggles page for these settings for the current network.
No, other PCs won’t be updated with the drive letter and shortcut you created, they will have to go through the process individually.
