Mapped drives not showing in programs run as administrator

The short answer

Your mapped drive (say Z:) works in File Explorer but an installer, a script or a Command Prompt run as administrator says the drive or path can’t be found. That is how User Account Control (UAC) is designed: an administrator signs in with two linked sessions, a standard one and an elevated one, and a drive mapping belongs to only one of them. Setting EnableLinkedConnections to 1 in the registry and restarting Windows makes your mapped drives appear in both sessions. If the elevation prompt on your PC asks for a password instead of Yes or No, that setting can’t help, and you have to map the drive inside the elevated program instead.

Why it happens

With UAC on, signing in as an administrator gives you two linked logon sessions: a least-privileged one that runs File Explorer and your everyday programs, and an elevated one that is used when you choose Run as administrator or click Yes on a security prompt.

A mapped drive letter is a small link that Windows keeps per logon session. Drives mapped by a logon script, by Group Policy or by you in File Explorer are created in the standard session, so a program started in the elevated session simply doesn’t see them. The share itself is still there: only the drive letter is missing.

You typically notice it when a software installer that must run as administrator asks for its files on a network drive, or when a setup program for an accounting or practice-management product needs a path like Z:\Data.

Check that this is your problem

1. Open Command Prompt normally (not as administrator) and type net use. Your drive, for example Z: with \\server\share, is listed as OK.
2. Now open Command Prompt as administrator: search for cmd, right-click Command Prompt and choose Run as administrator.
3. Type net use again. If the list is empty, or the drive shows as Unavailable, and typing Z: answers “The system cannot find the drive specified.”, you have this problem.

Fix 1: turn on EnableLinkedConnections

This is the registry value Microsoft documents for this situation. It tells Windows to create drive mappings in both linked sessions, so programs run as administrator see the same drive letters.

1. Press Windows + R, type regedit and press Enter. Choose Yes when Windows asks for permission.
2. Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System.
3. If there is no value called EnableLinkedConnections, right-click an empty part of the right pane and choose New › DWORD (32-bit) Value, and name it EnableLinkedConnections.
4. Double-click it, set Value data to 1 and click OK.
5. Restart Windows. The setting is read when Windows starts, so it has no effect until you restart.

The same change from a Command Prompt run as administrator:

reg add "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System" /v EnableLinkedConnections /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f

To undo it, delete the value (or set it to 0) and restart again. On a company PC, Group Policy can set or remove this value, so ask whoever manages your PCs before changing it.

Fix 2: map the drive inside the elevated program

If you can’t change the registry, or only need the drive once, map it again in the elevated session. Microsoft lists this as the other workaround.

1. Open Command Prompt as administrator.
2. Map the share to the same letter the program expects, for example: net use Z: \\server\share /persistent:no
3. Start the installer from that same window, for example Z:\setup.exe, so it inherits the drive.

Many programs also accept the full network path (\\server\share\folder) instead of a drive letter, which works in every session.

When neither works: “Prompt for credentials”

On some managed PCs the elevation prompt asks for an administrator’s user name and password instead of showing Yes and No. That comes from the policy “User Account Control: Behavior of the elevation prompt for administrators in Admin Approval Mode” set to Prompt for credentials. Each elevation then creates a brand-new logon session, so drives mapped earlier are never in it, and EnableLinkedConnections doesn’t help.

• Ask your IT administrator whether the policy can be set to Prompt for consent (Local Security Policy › Local Policies › Security Options).
• Or map the drive inside the elevated session as in Fix 2. If you elevate with a different administrator account, that account needs permission to open the share.

Do it in one click

Mapped Drive Support Native is a free, portable tool from RSDWare that makes Fix 1 for you. Apply Fix saves your current setting, sets EnableLinkedConnections = 1 and reads it back to confirm; Restore Previous Setting puts back exactly what was there before. It shows whether Windows still needs a restart, and never restarts your PC by itself.

For scripts and deployments it also runs from the command line: /status, /apply and /restore report what happened in their exit code.

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