Mapped drives not appearing in This PC (LTSB)

[Jaan]

Thought i'd make a new thread as it seems to be a different issue im having with regards to this.

 

Here is my post about pinning the file explorer icon to the ltsb start bar. (and ultimately being blank which leads us here).

 

I have a couple of registry settings that sets file explorer to open in "this pc" instead of "quick access" as default. For testing i have removed these and the problem still exists. The nav bar reappears (with quick access) but "this pc" remains blank with no drives mapped.

 

We are using DFS shares \\domain\sharedfolder to map to drive letters.

 

here's a screenshot of the issue:

 

 

Anybody got an ideas?

Edited June 13, 2018 by Jaan

[Steve21]

What other policies are applied? Mapping drives shouldn't affect anything like that as you should still have C:\ etc showing even if the maps failed.

 

Steve

[Jaan]

I hide locals disks so not seeing the c: is expected. I've managed to identify the problematic user GPO, if i remove it, it all works fine (without the restrictions needed in place of course).

 

The irony is i named this GPO "Win10 Global Disabled Microsoft features & GUI Restrictions"

 

The problem lies somewhere in the user section of the above gpo. i've attached the users section settings in the doc below. (Not sure if there is a better way to attach this?

 

User Configuration.docx

[ultima170387]

Could it be something to do with the following policy as you said you use DFS shares?

 

Allow DFS roots to be published

 

not 100% but just a thought

[Jaan]

Could it be something to do with the following policy as you said you use DFS shares?

 

Allow DFS roots to be published

 

not 100% but just a thought

 

i'll have a look, but i'm sure i've tried that. can't see the woods for the trees now lol. i'll report back my findings.

 

thx

[smarties11]

I hide locals disks so not seeing the c: is expected. I've managed to identify the problematic user GPO, if i remove it, it all works fine (without the restrictions needed in place of course).

 

The irony is i named this GPO "Win10 Global Disabled Microsoft features & GUI Restrictions"

 

The problem lies somewhere in the user section of the above gpo. i've attached the users section settings in the doc below. (Not sure if there is a better way to attach this?

 

[ATTACH]49294[/ATTACH]

 

I'm not sure if this will be causing your issues, however I notice you've got a lot of unneccessary settings in your GPO.

 

For example, you have set "prohibit access to control panel and pc settings" to enabled - but have then set individual settings for all the control panel applets (e.g. personalisation, printers, programs etc). There is no need to do this - the first settings prevents access to all control panel / settings apps including all entry points.

 

Likewise, you have 'hide and disable all items on the desktop' set to enable - but have then set individual settings to hide IE icon, computer icon.

 

Then in Network, you have 'prohibit access to properties of a LAN connection' and then have individual settings to prohibit various settings within the LAN connection.

 

Might be worth removing these unnecessary settings and see if things improve? Unfortunately, for some settings, setting them to 'not configured' isn't always enough to remove the registry entries on the PCs - you either need to test with a freshly imaged PC after changing the settings, or set the settings that are no longer required to disabled first - do a gpupdate on a test machine, and then set them to not configured.

 

Hope this helps!

[gmonks]

I was only getting some mapped drives and this solved the problem for me:

 

 

· Open Regedit

· HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE -> SOFTWARE -> Microsoft -> Windows -> CurrentVersion -> Policies -> System

· You will see ConsentPromptBehaviorAdmin, ConsentPromptBehaviorUser

Add the following key - ADD DWORD (32bit), name it "EnableLinkedConnections".

· Double click it and set the data to 1

· Reboot

[Jaan]

Could it be something to do with the following policy as you said you use DFS shares?

 

Allow DFS roots to be published

 

not 100% but just a thought

 

No joy i'm afraid

 

I'm not sure if this will be causing your issues, however I notice you've got a lot of unneccessary settings in your GPO.

 

For example, you have set "prohibit access to control panel and pc settings" to enabled - but have then set individual settings for all the control panel applets (e.g. personalisation, printers, programs etc). There is no need to do this - the first settings prevents access to all control panel / settings apps including all entry points.

 

Likewise, you have 'hide and disable all items on the desktop' set to enable - but have then set individual settings to hide IE icon, computer icon.

 

Then in Network, you have 'prohibit access to properties of a LAN connection' and then have individual settings to prohibit various settings within the LAN connection.

 

Might be worth removing these unnecessary settings and see if things improve? Unfortunately, for some settings, setting them to 'not configured' isn't always enough to remove the registry entries on the PCs - you either need to test with a freshly imaged PC after changing the settings, or set the settings that are no longer required to disabled first - do a gpupdate on a test machine, and then set them to not configured.

 

Hope this helps!

 

With regards to the registry settings, if i disable the whole GPO it reverts as expected. luckily i'm testing in a vm so i have snapshots. I have also recreated a new vm very recently as i was starting to think i had registry corruptions. The behaviour is the same however.

 

The issue/s lie with the word file i posted above...... so i guess i'm gonna have to go through them one at a time!

 

I was only getting some mapped drives and this solved the problem for me:

 

 

· Open Regedit

· HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE -> SOFTWARE -> Microsoft -> Windows -> CurrentVersion -> Policies -> System

· You will see ConsentPromptBehaviorAdmin, ConsentPromptBehaviorUser

Add the following key - ADD DWORD (32bit), name it "EnableLinkedConnections".

· Double click it and set the data to 1

· Reboot

 

I'll give that a go a get back to you.

[Jaan]

Interestingly i get this error if i type or manually select "this pc" from the drop down...... it's almost a clue!

 

[Jaan]

If i disable the user gpo (as per the attached word doc above) i get the below, so i guess its defo user gpo based!

 

[Oaktech]

Humour me and turn "Remove Run menu from Start Menu" back on - because this also removes access to UNC paths. You may find that for some reason you need to leave this on, but disable Run via registry

 

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer]
"NoRun"=dword:00000000

[Steve21]

Remove the "Remove Run menu from Start Menu" and try it

 

Steve

[Jaan]

I was only getting some mapped drives and this solved the problem for me:

 

 

· Open Regedit

· HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE -> SOFTWARE -> Microsoft -> Windows -> CurrentVersion -> Policies -> System

· You will see ConsentPromptBehaviorAdmin, ConsentPromptBehaviorUser

Add the following key - ADD DWORD (32bit), name it "EnableLinkedConnections".

· Double click it and set the data to 1

· Reboot

 

No joy with this also i'm afraid

 

 

Removing Run from the start menu doesn't allow the drives to be displayed in "this pc" still

 

 

Another observation (after allowing run on start bar) i can type drive letters into file explorer and access the users n: (there home drive for example). and other mapped drives. so i can actually access the drives, just not see them in "This PC"!

 

However this isn't the correct and prefered behaviour for us as our windows 7 machines (although you can see the mapped drives) dont allow users to type drive letters and unc paths.

 

thanks for all the pointers so far guys.

[smarties11]

What about the policy for "remove computer icon on the desktop"

 

and/or "hide and disable all items on the desktop"?

 

EDIT: Yes, it's the "remove computer icon on the desktop" setting. Just enabled it in my test environment and it hides "This PC" in explorer windows. Text from GPO description - "If you enable this setting, Computer is hidden on the desktop, the new Start menu, the Explorer folder tree pane, and the Explorer Web views. If the user manages to navigate to Computer, the folder will be empty." Computer = This PC in Win10

 

You don't need this setting anyway - as I said earlier, if you've got "hide and disable all items on the desktop" then no need for the individual settings too 8-)

Edited June 13, 2018 by smarties11

[Jaan]

What about the policy for "remove computer icon on the desktop"

 

and/or "hide and disable all items on the desktop"?

 

EDIT: Yes, it's the "remove computer icon on the desktop" setting. Just enabled it in my test environment and it hides "This PC" in explorer windows. Text from GPO description - "If you enable this setting, Computer is hidden on the desktop, the new Start menu, the Explorer folder tree pane, and the Explorer Web views. If the user manages to navigate to Computer, the folder will be empty." Computer = This PC in Win10

 

You don't need this setting anyway - as I said earlier, if you've got "hide and disable all items on the desktop" then no need for the individual settings too 8-)

 

OMG! it worked!...... thank you soooooooo much...... i've fallen foul of Microsoft's very generalised gpo naming.... indeed, if i read the actual gpo description it makes total sense!

 

"If you disable this setting, Computer is displayed as usual, appearing as normal on the desktop, Start menu, folder tree pane, and Web views, unless restricted by another setting."

 

Seems that Microsoft needs to do an audit for the gpos naming and descriptions for windows 10!

 

Thank you so so so. much i've been stuck on this for weeks and weeks!

 

Edit: in light of this..... i'll remove the unnecessary gpos i have though the policy now.

[smarties11]

OMG! it worked!...... thank you soooooooo much...... i've fallen foul of Microsoft's very generalised gpo naming.... indeed, if i read the actual gpo description it makes total sense!

 

"If you disable this setting, Computer is displayed as usual, appearing as normal on the desktop, Start menu, folder tree pane, and Web views, unless restricted by another setting."

 

Seems that Microsoft needs to do an audit for the gpos naming and descriptions for windows 10!

 

Thank you so so so. much i've been stuck on this for weeks and weeks!

 

Edit: in light of this..... i'll remove the unnecessary gpos i have though the policy now.

 

Haha, no worries at all - pleased to help! I've noticed a lot of inconsistencies with policy names and descriptions whilst setting up our Win10 deployment! I wish also they'd go through and remove all the old settings that only apply to old non-supported OSs like 2000 and XP!