Batch file change directory to mapped drive

Change the later and the path if it is different. What if you need to map a drive form a computer on the network that you have administrator access? Yes is simply easy just you need to change a part of the net use command:. Mapped drives are not persistent by default and to do that you need to use some cmd commands. By default, if we use the command above to map drive the mapped drive would disappear after you restarted the computer.

Also, future connections during the same session will be also persistent. Future connections will not be persistent until you turn the toggle back on.

The PowerShell commands differ from cmd commands so below we will explain the equivalent command:. To find the domain open system properties. The name after the full computer name is a domain name in the network. Using Windows Explorer, you can easily map the drive to the share on a remote computer when needed. But what if you need to map multiple drives at once, or you want to always map the drive when you logon to your computer?

The best solution is to create a batch file that you can click on, when you need to map the drives, or copy it to your Windows user account Startup folder so the drives are mapped automatically during logon.

To map drives using a batch file, we'll need to use the net use command. At it's simplest form, the command looks like this:. So to create a batch file that will map a drive to different computers that are sharing folders, we'll use the following commands:. Note: you can asssign any drive letter you want, as long as it is not in use by your computer for example A or C drives.

Using the commands above to map drives, assumes that the account you are logged on as, exists on the remote computer where the shared folder is located, or if you are at work, is part of a Windows Domain. If you need to authenticate when mapping the drive, we'll need to use an account that exists on the remote computer or in a Windows Domain, and add it onto the net use command as shown below:. If the remote computer is not part of a Domain, and is part of a Workgroup, then substitute the Domain for the name of the remote computer where the user account resides.

Now, realize when using the net use command and hard coding passwords, make sure you understand that you are at risk if anyone gains access to the batch file.

You don't want to create the batch file at work and save it to a File Server. If you specify a network path, the pushd command temporarily assigns the first unused drive letter starting with Z: and working backwards to the specified network resource. The command then changes the current drive and directory to the specified directory on the newly assigned drive. If you use the popd command with command extensions enabled, the popd command removes the drive-letter assignation created by pushd.

Thanks a lot that helped me to mapped several drives to windows XP clients through domain policy in AD. Thanks a lot, the above blog came in really handy to resolve my issue. Keep up the good work. Can you please help me to create batch file for opening few application in some time interval and website with id and password directly after running a batch file. While the use of a DOS command is effective, it is not permanent. Each restart or reboot of your PC will remove the mapping, so we must take the next step to make it constant.

In the days of DOS we could make our mapped drive permanent through an autoexec. However, we can still use a batch file to run our subst command at startup, but only if we mix the old with the new and link the file to the right folder. For those of you not as ancient as me, a batch file is a simple text file that Windows interprets as a series of commands.

These are the kinds of commands you would issue from the standard command prompt. Probably the best way to describe it is that batch files are a form of scripting. It does not matter where this batch file is located, but I would suggest somewhere on the operating system drive typically C:. For our example, we will use C:Apps. Use Windows File Explorer to navigate to the Apps folder, as shown in Figure A , and right-click on an open area in the righthand window.

Select New Text Document from the context menu. Give your new text file a name but be sure to use the. For our example, we used Startup. Right-click your batch file and select Edit from the context menu. Windows will open Notepad, and you will see an empty text file. Add the subst command that maps your desired drive letter to Microsoft One Drive. In my case it is:.

Save the batch file and close out Notepad. If you double-click your new batch file, it will run probably faster than you can notice and OneDrive will be mapped to a drive letter. However, to get this batch file to run on startup, we will have to place a link to it in the special Windows 10 and Windows 11 Startup folder. Many users are unaware of the Windows Startup folder, but it can be useful for running any application during the boot process that does not have that feature already built in.

Right-click an open area in the righthand window and select New Shortcut. You will be presented with a dialog box where you can browse to your batch file.