Alex Ruben
How To Prevent Domain Users From Disconnecting Mapped Network Drives on Windows Server GPO
Dealing with users who keep disconnecting shared drives can be a real pain — especially if it messes with workflows or causes support tickets to skyrocket. Sometimes it’s malicious, sometimes just accidental, but either way, you don’t want your staff messing with important network resources. That’s where this trick with Group Policy comes in handy. Basically, you set it up so they *cannot* disconnect those network drives, keeping everything stable and accessible. Helps prevent a lot of headache, especially in larger environments.
The thing is, this isn’t always straightforward. On one setup it worked perfect on the first try, on another, not so much. Windows has a weird way of applying policies sometimes, and it can be frustrating. But once properly configured, this little tweak ensures users won’t be able to disconnect shared drives, making your life a bit easier and the network more reliable.
How to Prevent Users from Disconnecting Mapped Network Drives in Windows Server
Method 1: Using Group Policy Management Console (GPMC)
Open the Group Policy Management Console (GPMC)
First things first, get GPMC up and running. If you’re on your Windows Server, just hit the Start menu, then type: gpmc.msc. Press Enter and it should pop open. If it doesn’t, make sure the GPMC feature is installed via Server Manager — sometimes it’s not enabled by default.
Create a new Group Policy Object (GPO)
- Navigate to your domain (like example.com) in the left pane of GPMC.
- Right-click on the OU (Organizational Unit) where your users or computers live, and pick Create a GPO in this domain, and Link it here…. Yeah, you wanna do that so it’s applying exactly where you want.
- Name it something obvious, like “Block Drive Disconnects” — helps keep things clear later.
- Click OK and voila, the new GPO is ready for configuration.
Edit the GPO to change the setting
- Right-click on your new GPO and select Edit. This opens the Group Policy Management Editor.
- Now, you’ll want to navigate to: User Configuration > Policies > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > File Explorer. Of course, paths in GPO can be a labyrinth, but this specific one handles drive-related policies.
- Find the policy called Prevent users from disconnecting network drives. If it’s not visible, double-check you’re looking under User Configuration.
- Double-click it, set it to Enabled — and that’s pretty much it.
- Click Apply and then OK to close the window.
Force the policy to take effect
Sometimes, it’s like Windows moonlights in being stubborn. To make sure it catches the new rule:
- Open Command Prompt as an admin on a client machine.
- Type:
gpupdate /forceand press Enter. - Alternatively, reboot the machine. On some setups, the policy kicks in after a reboot or a few logins.
Verify it’s working
On a client machine, right-click on the mapped drive and see if the Disconnect option is still there. If you set it up properly, it should now be grayed out or missing — no more accidental disconnections.
Troubleshooting tips
- Make sure the GPO is linked to the correct OU. If it’s on the wrong OU, no one gets the memo.
- If it’s still not applying, run
gpresult /ron a client to check what policies they’re getting. - Check for conflicting policies — sometimes, other GPOs override or reset your settings.
Extra hints & gotchas
Delivery of group policies isn’t always instant. If you’re doing this out of hours, wait a bit, or force it with gpupdate /force. Also, if you need certain users or groups to still have the ability to disconnect drives for some reason, you’ll want a more granular setup. Maybe create different OUs for those folks and not apply this specific GPO to them.
Summary
- Access the Group Policy Management Console.
- Create and link a GPO to your target OU.
- Edit it to enable Prevent users from disconnecting network drives.
- Force a policy update with
gpupdate /force. - Check that the option to disconnect is gone from mapped drives.
Wrap-up
Setting this up takes a bit of fiddling around, but once it’s done, it’s pretty rock-solid. Users aren’t accidentally deleting shared drives anymore, and support calls about this kind of thing drop dramatically. Of course, Windows can be weird — sometimes policies act oddly or don’t apply immediately — but a quick reboot or a force update usually sorts it out.
Hopefully, this shaves off a few hours for someone. Setting those restrictions properly just keeps things running smoother. Fingers crossed this helps!