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Hiding volume and server name.

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JBC

MIS
Aug 10, 1999
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Does anyone know how I could hide the server and volume name for each network drive from being displayed through My Computer, but not the drive letter? When users open docs in Word, they hit the dropdown menu to select a drive and the volume and server name is so long that the drive letter is off the screen on the right and not viewable.

Any suggestions would be much appreciated.
Thanks,
JohnC.
 
Set a shorter volume and server name?

A useful way is to have a centralised folder that is everyone's default Word drive. In this, you put a shortcut to EVERY volume, whether they are allowed in or not. You can sub folder them if required.

Then they do FILE OPEN and can see shortcuts that are nice and easy (and short).

Makes multi user computers easier to administer too...
 
That would allow me to hide the drive etirely, but what I am trying to do is show the drive letters, and hide the server and volume info. Reason being is that the server and volume name are so long that when a menu displays server and volume name, the drive letter is right off the menu on the right because the name is so long.
 
Am I missing something in your question? The Win98 help files say in "Shared files, specify path":

To specify the location of a bitmap named Canyon, which is located in a shared folder named Scenic on a computer named Pictures, type:

\\pictures\scenic\canyon.bmp

Or, map the shared folder to a drive (for example, drive D), and then type:

d:\canyon.bmp endquote

So, why don't you just map the Word folders to a drive?




 
I think the problem is that if you map lets say the R drive to \\servername\sharepointname then when you open word and do file open you see

Desktop
My Computer
A drive
C drive
CD ROM
sharepointname on serverna
another sharepoint on serv

The rest of the line is cut off by the drop down box and you cannot see the drive letter mapping.

Either you need to shorten the share names or you need to map Words default directory to a common directory that uses shortcuts.
 
Zelandakah's interpretation of the problem is absolutely correct. The reason why I'm having such a tough time is that I am using NetWare Cluster services and I am mapping users to virtual servers, which naming strategy follows the syntax:
"Clustername_Volumename_Server"
So renaming the server is impossible and that is what is taking up all the space, which is why I need to hide the server and volume info and just show the drive letter. Do you think I am screwed? I'm almost ready to open a call with Novell and ask them why they didn't think of this?

John
 
well... i wouldn't go pointing the finger at Novell just yet... even on an NT network, we tend to have that problem... our solution, so far, has been to keep the server names short...

another problem is MS Word... i can map the drive all day long, and word translates it to a UNC connection... handy if you are a geek trying to find where they store the stuff, if they lose the drive mapping, not handy if you are the non-geek user who calls and says "it's on my S: drive"...

unless there is a registry hack, i think you're out of luck...
 
Point them at a single folder with shortcuts to the relevant folders then?
 
I guess I could do that. You know how it is with some people though, if you change how something looks they loose it, even if the functionality is still there. Oh well, if I come up with a registry hack to hide the server info I will certainly post it here.

Thanks to all for the help.
JohnC.
 
Can't recall if it is Novell or old Windows, their used to be a /root switch for mapping network drives.

If that works with net use you may gain something...
 
dear friends

try the login script to map the drives/shared resources
when the user logins he can have a drive letter mapped for life time :))
 
If I map root the users, they won't be able to go back from that directory. To some of the older users that would be like saying the world isn't flat.

JohnC.
 
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