Windows – How to set the Windows network timeout for physically disconnected mapped drive

networkingwindowswindows 7

When a network drive (net use) is physically disconnected, Windows Explorer (and other programs) keeps trying to enumerate and/or use it for maybe 60 seconds.

Is there some way to reduce this timeout to maybe 5 seconds?

Just to clarify, I'm not asking about network drives that are automatically disconnected by Windows after a certain period of time, or about automatic reconnections during login.

The question is about this:

Connect a network drive to another computer. Then turn that other computer off. Then try to reconnect the network drive, e.g. by double-clicking in Windows Explorer → very long timeout. How do I reduce this timeout?

Best Answer

In Windows 7 and Vista mapped network drives will disconnect themselves after a time and show a red cross on the drive icon. You will still be able to click on the drive and see/use the contents but applications that require a network drive will see them as disconnected and will not see files. If you try to disconnect the drive, it will still sit there saying 'Disconnected Network Drive' - the only solution is to reboot. This is because there is a default disconnect time for inactive network connections. To correct this and turn the autodisconnect off do the following:

  1. Open the command prompt as Administrator. To do this, either:

    • go to Start → All Programs → Accessories, right-click "Command Prompt" and select "Start as Administrator", or

    • type cmd into the search box and press Ctrl+Shift+Enter

  2. In the command prompty, type the following:

    net config server /autodisconnect:-1

  3. Press Enter

  4. Reboot computer

Your mapped network drives should now stay connected - this is a permanent fix.

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