Beyond Simple File Sharing: Using Mapped Drives

Mapping network drives certainly saves time and energy in the long run when it comes to shared folders or drives on the network accessed regularly. It pays to make them more accessible in My Computer (or just Computer in Vista) and in dialog boxes where you select files.

When you map a network drive, you are essentially creating a shortcut to a certain shared folder or drive, masked as a drive. You assign the mapped network drive a drive letter, anything from A to Z that's not already assigned to other drives (such as A, C, D or E) on the computer.