Mapped Drives in Windows Explorer May Retain the Name of a Disconnected Drive

Article ID: 306117 - View products that this article applies to.
This article was previously published under Q306117
IMPORTANT: This article contains information about modifying the registry. Before you modify the registry, make sure to back it up and make sure that you understand how to restore the registry if a problem occurs. For information about how to back up, restore, and edit the registry, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
256986
(http://support.microsoft.com/kb/256986/EN-US/ )
Description of the Microsoft Windows Registry
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SYMPTOMS

If you disconnect and then reconnect to a different share by using the same drive letter after you map a network drive by letter in Windows Explorer, the share label displays the previous share name in Windows Explorer.

Note that the contents that are displayed are correct for the remote drive, but the label is incorrect.
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CAUSE

This behavior can occur if the Windows Explorer DesktopProcess registry value is set to 1.
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RESOLUTION

WARNING: If you use Registry Editor incorrectly, you may cause serious problems that may require you to reinstall your operating system. Microsoft cannot guarantee that you can solve problems that result from using Registry Editor incorrectly. Use Registry Editor at your own risk.

To resolve this behavior, delete the DesktopProcess value from the following registry key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer
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MORE INFORMATION

Problems when you use the DesktopProcess registry value are not supported by Microsoft.

Note also that running EXPLORER on RunAs is not supported. This behavior is by design of EXPLORER.

Steps to Reproduce the Behavior

  1. Add the following registry key as a REG_DWORD value with a hex value of 1:
    HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\DesktopProcess
  2. Use Windows Explorer to map share A to a drive letter.
  3. Disconnect the share, and then map share B to the same drive letter that you used in step 1.
The share label displays as share A even though you are connected to share B.
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REFERENCES

For additional information about the DesktopProcess registry value, click the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
156366
(http://support.microsoft.com/kb/156366/EN-US/ )
How to Run Windows NT Explorer As a Separate Process
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Properties

Article ID: 306117 - Last Review: February 20, 2007 - Revision: 2.2
APPLIES TO
  • Microsoft Windows 2000 Service Pack 1
  • Microsoft Windows 2000 Service Pack 2
  • Microsoft Windows 2000 Advanced Server
  • Microsoft Windows 2000 Advanced Server
  • Microsoft Windows 2000 Service Pack 1
  • Microsoft Windows 2000 Service Pack 2
  • Microsoft Windows NT 4.0 Service Pack 6a
  • Microsoft Windows NT Workstation 4.0 Developer Edition
Keywords: 
kbfix kbregistry kbwin2000presp3fix kbprb KB306117
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