Your Winguides registry key is the same as discussed in my earlier link to the MS Knowledge Base. You need to be certain that the registry change is made on the computer hosting the share(s).
The red x is by design to save resources. The network drives are not connected until they need to be used. Some applications cannot handle the delay in reconnecting. If your application is having an issue, you may consider disabling autodisconnect per the intructions below.
Sometimes network drives still get disconnected even with autodisconnect disabled. Usually this is caused by third party software or drivers (a/v software, network card agents, etc).
IF you are using applications that cannot automatically reconnect network drives, you can disable the autodisconnect behavior on either the server or
client side by changing the following registry keys:
On the server:
HKLM\System\CCS\Services\LanManServer\Parameters\Autodisconnect=0x0000FFFF
Note: The preceding entry must be located on the computer that offers the share or shares.
The valid value range if you edit the LAN Autodisconnect parameter in the registry is 0 to 4294967295 0xffffffff). For a Windows 2000 Server in a Domain, running either as a domain controller or as a server, the maximum value is 65,535 (0xffff). Values set above this will be returned to 0xffff after policy refresh. Windows 2000 Servers in a Workgroup may be set to any value as indicated.
On the client:
HKLM\System\CCS\Services\LanManWorkstation\Parameters\KeepConn=65535
Value : KeepConn REG_DWORD 1 to 65535 seconds
Default: 600 (10 minutes)
The value of KeepConn specifies the maximum amount of ime that a connection can be left dormant.
Note:
Windows 2000 processes the KEEPCONN registry key differently than Microsoft Windows NT 4.0, and permits the connection to the target server to time out.