The ‘Net Is Getting Tighter

This post isn’t about .NET programming directly but it is about the tools I use when programming. I am quite fond of using batch files to execute common maintenance tasks like archiving source files or performing custom builds. However, sometimes the target folders of the actions within these batch files are located on network shares that are not mapped to a network drive. Most batch commands will happily accept UNC paths as arguments on the command line but the command prompt (cmd.exe) does not support setting the current directory to a UNC path.

I don’t like to map network drives for infrequently accesses shares and I especially don’t like mapping network drives to the hidden x$ administrative shares. A common technique is to call NET USE at the beginning of the batch to temporarily map the share until a call to NET USE /DELETE at the end of the batch cleans it up. Even better though, I found some articles on Microsoft support describing easier methods to achieve the same result.

Knowledge Base article 156276 specifies a registry key that can be changed to enable a UNC path as the current directory but this didn’t seem to work all the time for me. Article 317379 describes the more portable method of using the PUSHD and POPD directory stack commands that will automatically map an unused drive letter to the UNC path and remove it when done.

I also discovered recently that Windows XP has a built in VPN Server feature accessible from the Network Connections folder in Control Panel. Run the New Connection Wizard, select “Set up an advanced connection”, and follow the prompts. It’s scary that I am still discovering new features when I have been using Windows XP since release.