Windows mapped drive vs unc

Your answer would seem to suggest that mapped drives might be slightly slower than UNC paths. But my co-worker states the opposite: mapped drives perform faster than UNC paths. And this isn't just Windows Explorer; it's any file access, such as batch processes through code. Any idea? I think your or co-worker is wrong. UNC Paths have less overhead.

Mapped drives also have connection issues, disconnection issues, timeout issues, "browse dialog" issues, and probably a few other issues I haven't thought of.

Define performance. Or time to browse through the explorer to find a path. UI access to either kind will suffer if you put an extreme number of files in them. Hi, Phil! I hate UNC paths. I mean, I use them to access stuff myself sometimes, but I don't want my clients or the desktop apps they use to have to know or to see! A drive mapping is a variable. It lets me change things around behind the scenes without users or software ever having to know about it. Not UI at all.

This is a server-based program a service, I believe enumerating and reading files on another server. Active 11 years, 7 months ago. Viewed 9k times. Improve this question. Add a comment. Active Oldest Votes. Improve this answer. Ed Fries Ed Fries 1, 2 2 gold badges 11 11 silver badges 13 13 bronze badges. In practice, there are fundamental differences between mapping and using the UNC path.

Without access or knowledge to the Windows source code, this is difficult to answer. Nathan Moreau. Sign up or log in Sign up using Google. Sign up using Facebook. Sign up using Email and Password. Post as a guest Name. Email Required, but never shown. Sign in to vote. Hi everyone, I'm having a problem with access to a file under a mapped drive, but if I use the UNC path to access then everything will be fine.

Thanks in advanced! Thursday, May 31, PM. Wednesday, June 6, PM. It's not clear where you have this issue, but I'll hazard a guess that it's in an application that is running elevated. When an application elevates it runs under a different context, which may or may not be related to the user who is logged in. As a result drive mappings are not available in an elevated session unless you specifically map them whilst elevated. Friday, June 1, AM. Sorry i didn't make it clear. Yes, it is an application.

Friday, June 1, PM. If I open Visual Basic projects from the mapped network drive, I get a path not found error message. But if I open it via a UNC path, it opens just fine.