Network Mapped Drive Issue

Stefano Pistilli

Hi to all,
I found an issue tring to open file in network mapped drive in windows. I have 3 PC: 2 PC have notepad++ working without problem, but in just 1 I found this issue. I installed different versions of the Notepad but no way. For instance, I have a drive M: mapped in network and if I try to open a file in Notepad++ I cannot see any mapped drive. This problem is specific of Notepad++ because any other application installed in the PC can access to all the network drive mapped. I tried to manage firewall rules without success. I installed also SMB1.0 capability but again without a solution.
Do you have some ideas?
Thank you in advance

Notepad++ installed to test 8.6.5 and 7.9.3, both with same result

gerdb42

Did you start NPP elevated (“As Administrator”)? Does it show “[Administrator]” in the Window Title? If so, try to start NPP in normal Mode. Network mappings are not available in elevated apps.

deleelee

@gerdb42 said in Network Mapped Drive Issue:

Network mappings are not available in elevated apps.

This raises an interesting question for me. Is it necessary for Npp to be run as administrator? For example, are there features, plugins, etc that won’t work if not in administrator mode?

PeterJones

@deleelee said in Network Mapped Drive Issue:

Is it necessary for Npp to be run as administrator?

No. Except when you are editing a protected file (like something in C:\Windows\ or C:\Program Files), or when briefly performing an action like installing a plugin or Settings > Preferences > File Association, you should not need to or even usually choose to use Administrator mode.

Aside from network issues in Admin, that mode also prevents you from dragging a file from a normal Windows Explorer window into Admin-Notepad++, and there are probably other subtle downfalls to regularly using Admin mode.

If your experience is that you do need Admin to edit normal files or to use Plugin actions, then you’ve probably got a very strange configuration (ie, something is messed up in your installation). If that’s really the case, my first line of action would be to exit Notepad++ completely, rename %AppData%\Notepad++\ to %AppData%\Notepad++.bak\, and run Notepad++ not in Admin mode, which will cause Notepad++ to re-create %AppData%\Notepad++\ with your active user… so hopefully you’ll have the permissions you need, and I think your “need for Admin” should go away.

If that works, you might eventually have to manually copy contents (not the files themselves) from the %AppData%\Notepad++.bak\ hierarchy to the %AppData%\Notepad++\ hierarchy to bring back over settings, but that’s for future-you to worry about.

deleelee

@PeterJones Thanks for the explanation. I have been running as admin by default and never thought about the restrictions of doing that so I’ve turned that off for now. I bet I’ll forget that’s what I’ve done the next time I install a plugin and it doesn’t work 😆