DFS Network share and Windows 7 strange disappears
We have network share (DFS) that at times with Windows 7 when opening the share it will quickly flash the folder inside and then disappear. This will happen on a number of different computers and not all the time. Anybody have any thoughts? Thanks, Paul
February 23rd, 2010 5:23pm

Hi, Does the issue occur when accessing the DFS shared folder on other operating system, such as Windows XP and Windows Vista? Here are some suggestions you can try: 1. Temporarily disable firewall on Windows 7 and perform a Clean Boot to check the result. 2. Try to publish a new DFS shared folder and access it again. If there is any error message, please upload it for research. Thanks, Novak
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February 25th, 2010 8:23am

Hi, Did you find a fix for this? I have exactly the same problem. We are part way through a windows7 rollout and this affects only windows 7 machines. the dfs share flashes up and then disappears and returns the user to the root of "my computer" or just "computer" as it's now called. Working fine for everyone else. Mixed hardware sets are affected. Adam.
March 4th, 2010 12:26pm

No we have not. It never happens to mine and sometime it like weeks before it happens again to those it does.
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March 17th, 2010 8:57pm

Hi, I have the same issue as AdamBrown. DFS share works on XP, 2000 machines but on Windows 7 when the user double clicks on the share it will open and then quickly return to the root of Computer. As well, mixed hardware is affected.Any input would greatly be appreciated. Thanks, Mike
March 29th, 2010 4:34pm

The problem here may be due to the authentication level. Since the default authentication levels in Windows 7 and Windows XP/Server 2003 are different. This issue seams to be solved by changing the NTLM authentication level to Send LM & NTLM - use NTLMv2 session security if negotiated after this go to run type regedit and press the enter key and then find HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Contro l\LsaNow Create a DWORD key under Lsa and set:Name: LmCompatibilityLevel Value: 1Then Restart the system
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March 29th, 2010 7:59pm

Thanks for the info Paul024, unfortunately our security policy also prevents us from lowering the LmCompatibilityLevel lower than 3. Do you have any other suggestions?Thanks,Mike
April 1st, 2010 6:50pm

Nothing else but upgrade your server to Server 2008 R2. Sorry.
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April 7th, 2010 9:10pm

Interestingly I've seen a client with the same problem where they have a DFS-N structure with multiple targets, when opening the share it would flick between targets even though the referrals were correct and would frequently end up connected to a share out of the site. The DFS servers are 2003 and there were no issues with XP etc, things that I tested were: Install OS straight from DVD and in an OU with block inheritance - No effect so looking like a bug Disabling IPv6 - I saw an article by the Directory Services team about IPv6 subnets in sites and services (No effect) NTLM security settings - in local policy settings under security options set the NTLM security settings to not require SSL which is enabled by default (No effect) Disabled Offline Files - this actually stopped the problem however means a loss in functionality, I wonder whether its something to do with transparent caching and open handles to files in the targets and it incorrectly marking the target as unavailable using dfsutil I can see it cycle through the targets setting them all to an AccessStatus of 0xc000003a before randomingly settling on one. DFS share with only one target - this works fine Other ways I think that you could get around the problem are setting target selection to be insite so the client only gets one referral, however this would have an impact on DR if that is how it is being used in your organisation. Haven't tried the NTLM reg hack will be interesting to see whether that also works. Can anyone confirm that this fixed the problem for them?
November 14th, 2010 10:44pm

I can confirm the opposite :-( for us, even with the reghack in place, and http://support.microsoft.com/kb/983620 installed, the Win7 64 Bit DFS client continutes to 'flop' around when connected to multiple target DFS shares. thankfully we are in design/build mode at the moment, so whilst this is annoying it's not the end of the world. We are nearly however at the point where we are ready to raise a PSS call and work through it. Which begs the question, has anyone who has seen the odd DFS behaviour logged a PSS incident? edit: seems to be worse on large directories. for example, we have 600+ directories under the target, and explorer doesn't even manage to list them all most of the time, whilst dir does.
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November 21st, 2010 10:42pm

We're seeing the same thing with 2 of our Windows 7 machines against Server 2003 DFS. There are a few threads on this now (http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/w7itprogeneral/thread/63b92708-b86d-4526-b8d9-c3c02cfde408), no one seems to have a concrete answer. I'll try some of these tips and let you know if they help us.
November 22nd, 2010 4:32pm

So far the problem seems to be resolved for us by the MS Hotfix.
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November 29th, 2010 1:12pm

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