GPO Drive Mapping Issues

 

Apparently, mapping a drive using group policy and applied to a Windows Vista machine can result in users actually not being able to see their drives properly. While I won’t get into the reasons behind this too deeply, it is inherent in the security model that UAC relies on to function.

UAC breaks each successful logon into a split token with half of that being a standard user token and the other half being an elevated administrator token. When group policy maps drives, these are mapped under the elevated administrator token which results in the lower standard user token user being unable to see these drives as they have been theoretically mapped in a different session. 

Obviously, a simple fix would be to disable UAC, but anyone that is a loyal Slick IT reader knows our feelings on that.

The other solution is not entirely acceptable to me either as it could theoretically allow malware to redirect drive mappings, but for the time being it is the best fix we have.

Simply open regedit from the run line and modify the following registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System
EnableLinkedConnections =(dword)1

I am not sure whether this problem affects Windows 7 clients, but I would guess that it does given the closeness in the UAC architecture of both Vista and Windows 7. If anyone can confirm this issue exists, please comment below!

Hope this helps!