Hi, We use group policy preferences to map non-persistent drives on XP and Vista. We have started to test Windows 7 and keep getting network drives appearing as disconnected when logging in off the network. This behaviour doesn't occur with our XP or Vista machines. Net use shows no disconnected network drives when offline. Any tips for any setting changes would be appreciated. Regards, Daryl Lyford

Please describe the detail symptom to us. When you log in with the network connection disconnected, certainly the mapped drive should be disconnected. What is wrong with it? If you would like to use these mapped drives when the system is offline, you can enable the “Always available offline”.Arthur Xie - MSFT

Hi Arthur, If we log onto the Win 7 computer while connected to the network we get the drive mappings as intended with no persistance set. If we then shutdown/restart/log off and pull the network connection and log back in, we see the drive mappings still appear, but in a disconnected state. On Vista or XP, the mapped drives correctly do not show. There's no offline files configured on the mappings. There's folder redirection in use on the user's home drive only. Example: Logging in conencted to the network (Win7, Vista, XP): C: - local drive G: - network drive - connected no persistance H: - network drive - connected no persistance (folder redirection in place) J: - network drive - connected no persistance Logging in disconnected from the network (Win7): C: - local drive G: - network drive - shows as disconnected H: - network drive - shows as connected (due to folder redirection, this is OK to stay like this) j: - network drive - shows as disconnected Logging in disconnected from the network (Vista, XP) - Intended outcome: C: - local drive

How does it work in Safe Mode with Network?Arthur Xie - MSFT

I just tried safe mode with network while disconnected from the network and it gives the same result as normal mode.

I will report this behavior to proper department. Thank you for your feedback. Arthur Xie - MSFT

Has there been any update to this?

I also have the same issue. File server running 2008R2, laptop running Windows7 64 bit, drives mapped via GPO preferences. When I shutdown and go off the network the drives still show up with a red X. This only happens in Windows7. I think Grolls has also explained the issue well. Anyone have any ideas?

Do you have any new tips for this problems about GPO preferences and non-persistent drivers on Windows 7? Regards, Matjaz Premerl

I still haven't found a resolution, so we are just living with the issue. We don't have too many laptops, so it's only impacting a few of our users currently.

Hi, It looks like I've got the same issue as yourself http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/winserverGP/thread/b41e9e70-9dc2-4f67-9139-1cd36c1470e5/ If I find a resolution I'll post back. J

I've also had this issue, and another. I have an all Gbps (latency less than 1ms) LAN with mostly 2008R2 servers. All DCs and File Servers are 2008R2 x64. Most of our laptops are Windows 7 64bit. All users have their local My Documents/Documents folder mapped to \\fileserver\users\%username%\My Documents. I then have GPOs that disable offline files for all desktops and enable it for all laptops. It also forces the user's My Documents files to be "Always available offline". For most people this works, but for a few users, they will have been logged in for hours and will notice that files that are copied to the file server are not showing up when they attempt to view them in common shared folders that are not available offline. Everything else is fine. They are able to connect to the web, use Exchange, print, etc. The Windows Sync center which I have found to be particularly useless indicates no issues. Here are the GPOs I have in place for Offline Files users: Network/Offline Files PolicySettingComment Action on server disconnectEnabled Specify how the system is to respond when a network server becomes unavailable. Action: Work offline Never go offline = Server's files are unavailable to local computer Work offline = Server's files are available to local computer PolicySettingComment Configure Slow link speedEnabled Value entered is [ bps / 100 ] --> Example: 128,000bps, enter 1280 Value: 640 PolicySettingComment Configure slow-link modeDisabled Default cache sizeEnabled Value entered is [ percent disk used * 10,000 ]. For example, to indicate 12.53%, enter 1253. Default cache size: 1500 PolicySettingComment Enable Transparent CachingEnabled Enter the network latency value above which network files will be temporarily cached on the client. Enter network latency value in milliseconds300 PolicySettingComment Event logging levelEnabled Enter [0-3]: 1 0 = Cache data corrupted 1 = Log 'server offline' 2 = Level 1 + log 'net stopped' and 'net started' 3 = Level 2 + log 'server available for reconnection' PolicySettingComment Files not cachedEnabled Files may be excluded from caching on auto-cache shared folders based on their extension. Enter a list of extensions to be excluded. Extensions must be preceded by an asterisk and period. "e.g. *.dbf;*.ndx;*.lnk Extensions: *.pst;*.mdb;*.tmp PolicySettingComment Reminder balloon frequencyEnabled Number of minutes between reminder balloons Minutes: 60 PolicySettingComment Synchronize all offline files before logging offEnabled Synchronize all offline files when logging onEnabled Synchronize offline files before suspendEnabled Type of synchronization to perform when suspending: Action:Quick This is an incredibly frustrating issue and I'd love to be able to figure out how to resolve this. It is especially maddening that the system doesn't indicate there is an issue until someone actually notices that files are not visible. What is strange is that the "update lag" that I'm seeing appears in shared folders that are not in the local users CSC (Client Side Cache). For instance, user A (using a desktop PC (Win7 x64)) copies a file to the share \\fileserver\department\reports, this share is also mapped to drive W:\, we use login scripts to ensure all users have the same shares/drive letters mapped. Two minutes later, user B goes to open the shared folder to review the uploaded document and it isn't visible. F5 does not resolve the issue. Folder is showsn as Online. After running a few manual syncs with the Sync center, the file appears. What in the world is going on?

We´ve have faced the same issue in our environment. We also have Windows 7 clients and a W28KR2 fileserver and connect our network drives with GPP as non-persistent. When we shutdown the labtop and start it without network connection the drives are marked with a red X in windows explorer. Also the drives shows up in the registry HKCU\Network which normally only occurs if you make a persistent drive mapping. So my question: Are there any updates to this potential Windows 7 bug?