Ever since installing the Windows 7 RTM build, I have been unable to have that system automatically log on to an assigned mapped drive on my MacBook.
Until now.
The basic concept is that from Windows Explorer, you want to map a networked drive, and retain that mapped network drive so that it is persistent through multiple reboots and logins to that system. The problem is that the default installation of Windows 7 appears to support this feature (as happens quite seamlessly in XP), but in fact it doesn’t.
When you log on to a network volume and assign it as a mapped drive, there is a “Remember my credentials” checkbox on the login dialog. One would expect that this should add the login credentials to the Credentials Manager, so that the details are retained and you can automatically log in to that mapped drive the next (and every subsequent) time that you restart the Windows 7 system.
Entering credentials
Why else would you want to check the “Remember my credentials” checkbox, right?
Unfortunately, that isn’t how it happened for me, and every time I rebooted the system, I would see a message balloon pop up in the taskbar, and the mapped drive would contain a red X through it, indicating that the drive mapping could not be re-established.
Mapped drive is not connected
When I mapped the drive, this process had created a record in the Windows 7 Credential Manager, but this showed that the persistence of the login to the networked drive was just for the current session. This did not seem to me to be correct. Manually creating a record in the Credentials Manager also failed to rectify the problem.
After quite a good deal of research, I discovered that the actual source of the problem has nothing to do with the Credentials Manager, but instead relates to how the default group policies for SMB shares are set up when Windows 7 is installed. The default value is that the relevant policy is left unset, and that creates this problem when you wish to automatically log in to some SMB shares. This of course is how OS X drives are seen by Windows when they are set as mapped drives within your system, and that is why this problem seems to occur.
Fixing the problem requires editing the group policies. Not a difficult task, but it does entail changing some registry settings. If you are not comfortable with doing getting your hands dirty in the registry, stop now, or find someone who can do this. And be sure that you back up your registry before you start. If you screw up your registry, you might not be able to restart and use your system, so consider yourself warned.
To edit the Group Policies, we need to run the Group Policy Editor program. Press the Windows and R keys together to bring up the Run Program dialog, and then, in the Run dialog, enter gpedit.msc and press the OK button.
After a few moments the Group Policies Editor will open.
In the Group Policies Editor, open each of the following items in turn:
Computer Configuration
Windows Settings
Security Settings
Local Policies
Security Options
Now, right-click on the “Network security: LAN Manager authentication level” policy item, and then, from the context (pop-up) menu, select “Properties”.
Now select the “Local Security Settings” tab, and then, in the dropdown box, locate and select “Send LM & NTLM – user NTLMv2 session security if negotiated”.
Now click the OK button, and then finally, you may close the Group Policies Editor window.
The problem should now be fixed, and your mapped drive logins should now be persistent through multiple reboots of the system.
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Oh my gosh… THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! I only wish it wouldn’t have taken me 4 hours to find this post.
Mega Awesome – thanks!
Just registered to say THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!
You are great! Thanks for sharing
This didn’t work for me. I’ve tried the credentials manager and this fix with no luck. I really wish I could figure this out.
Many thanks, worked like a charm.
Thank you so much!
I also had to disable Kerberos auth for SMB on my OSX Server for this to work.
It didn’t work for me…
This didn’t work for me – Win 7 Pro. I solved my problem using the “Credential Manager. To open the Credential Manager and add a Windows credential:
1. Click Start and click Control Panel.
2. Click Credential Manager.
3. Click Add a Windows credential.
4. Within the Resource field, type in the name of the resource (such as the computer name) or the URL of the Web site you want to access.
5. In the User name field, type in your username used to access the resource or Web site.
6. In the Password field, type in the password used to access the resource or Web site.
7. Click OK.
The credentials are now stored within the Windows Vault. You can use Credential Manager to edit or remove credentials from the vault at any time. In addition to adding Windows Credentials, you can add certificate-based credentials and generic credentials.”
In which case, you actually had a different, but more benign problem. If you will read my post, you may observe that the Credentials Manager had already been tried and failed, and thus a different approach was required.
You might also note that this post is actually entitled “Fixing the Mapped Drive Credentials Problem”, and thus I think that people might reasonably look to this solution after they’ve actually experienced an issue within the Credentials Manager.
FYI, this may be why the group policies editor will not load and you will not be able to connect to a NAS or shared folder on the network without re-entering username and password after a restart.I found that this will not work on Windows 7 starter or home premium, in other words you will need to upgrade for this feature to be turned on.
fmeneghini:
Wouldn’t this potentially cause lockout issues when user network passwords change? I’m imagining this to be the case. Any suggestions for Enterprise environments?
I have been fighting this same problem for a long time as well. I finally found the solution that worked for me at least.
1 Open Credential Manager.
2 Edit the name to include the name of the server connection. For example.. Server\Username
3 save the password
4 reboot and test
But Roger, (and as I’ve already pointed out) you are addressing a different issue, and that issue – with your solution – is exactly the one that my original post addresses when your suggestion has actually failed. You’re at milestone 7; this post has already passed that point, and moved on further up the road.