I have had success with these settings with both Windows Server 2008 and 2008 R2 hosting Active Directory (AD) with both Windows 7 and Windows 8 clients.
tl;dr version
- User Configuration -> Preferences -> Windows Settings -> Drive Maps -> [add desired mappings]
- Computer Configuration -> Policies -> Administrative Templates -> System -> Group Policy ->User Group Policy loopback processing mode -> Enabled
- User Configuration -> Preferences -> Windows Settings -> Registry:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System\EnableLinkedConnections (REG_DWORD = 0x1)
Detailed version
I usually create a new Group Policy Object (GPO) called SET Mapped Network Drives that will be dedicated to mapping the network drives and hold all related settings.
The first setting is the most obvious: mapping the the drives.
In the group policy editor, navigate to:
User Configuration -> Preferences -> Windows Settings -> Drive Maps
Microsoft has a pretty good explanation of this window and how to setup the maps so I won't duplicate their work here.
The second setting is a little less obvious: Enable loopback processing mode.
In the group policy editor, navigate to:
Computer Configuration -> Policies -> Administrative Templates -> System -> Group Policy
Set the User Group Policy loopback processing mode to Enabled. (I usually use Merge)
And finally, the last setting: EnableLinkedConnections.
It should be noted that this policy only affects Administrators. If the end user doesn't have administrator rights on a machine, the policy should take effect without this setting.
In the group policy editor, navigate to:
User Configuration -> Preferences -> Windows Settings -> Registry
Add a new entry with the following values:
Hive HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
Key path SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System
Value name EnableLinkedConnections
Value type REG_DWORD
Value data 0x1 (1)
And that should do it. Your drives should now map beautifully.
Good luck!
