Windows 7 - Libraries - Include a Network Folder

In this situation you are right. Since a NAS isnt windows based most the time, THERE you need another way.

IIRC, it will work (without any tools), if you map the destination folder as a network drive, and then include the network drive to the library.

(Well this ofc. is similar to using simlinks then.)

dognose

Hi all,

There is an official "Microsoft" way of making Libraries behave better with non-indexed network locations. Here's how.

Log in using an administrative account.
Run "gpedit.msc". This will open the Local Group Policy Editor.
Drill down to User Configuration, Windows Components, Windows Explorer
Look in the right-hand pane and find the Line "Turn off Windows Libraries features that rely on indexed file data"
Double-click on that line, read the explanation, then set it to "Enabled".
Restart

Now you should be able to add NAS and other non-indexed locations without Windows complaining!
To set things back the way they were, just repeat the above, setting the same policy to "Not configured".

Here's the description of this policy setting from MS:


Requirements:
At least Windows 7 or Windows Server2008 R2
Description:
This policy setting allows you to turn off Windows Libraries features that need indexed file metadata to Function properly. If you enable this policy, some Windows Libraries Features will be turned off to better handle included folders that have been redirected to non-indexed network locations.
Setting this policy will:
* Disable all Arrangement views except for “By Folder”
* Disable all Search filter suggestions other than “Date Modified” and “Size”
* Disable view of file content snippets in Content mode when search results are returned
* Disable ability to stack in the Context menu and Column headers
* Exclude Libraries from the scope of Start search
This policy will not enable users to add unsupported locations to Libraries.
If you enable this policy, Windows Libraries features that rely on indexed File data will be disabled.
If you disable or do not configure this policy, all default Windows Libraries Features will be enabled.

Hope this helps.

Richard

"By default, Windows 7 does not allow you to include network drives or folders in a library. This is because folders must be indexed first in order to be added to a library, and network drives cannot be indexed unless they are synchronized. This will show you how to do that and add them to a library."

This is somewhat less than a complete statement. If the network location has an acceptable indexing service running locally, Windows 7 will in fact allow you to add the network drive to the library. So in a typical MS shop where the server is running a recent version of Windows Server and the indexing is enabled on the drive concerned, it will work.

Since most NAS run some version of Linux for obvious reasons of economy, such NAS devices cannot unfortunately be added to libraries. No reason why the Linux guys could not write something that would meet the specs, but getting the NAS manufacturers to include that would be quite a step.

This is one small advantage of using a NAS based on the OEM version of Windows Server, Windows Storage Server. The licensing costs for that OS version are much lower, but it's not free like Linux, so these are premium devices, but they do exist! Windows Home Server also has the service.

If this facility is vitally important to you, you could do worse than deploy a cheap Atom-based PC running Windows 7 as a network server. Still not as cheap as most NAS though.

Richard

Unfortunately for those of us using Home Premium we don't have gpedit.msc

I've read through this forum and I've got a much simpler solution.

I myself have a Server (running R2 2008) with 16TB of storage space (8x2TB).

One of these 2TB drives has my Music/Pictures/Video on it. The drive is shared via Group Policy automatically between all machines joined to the domain. This is not necessary, just sayin' this is my setup. All you really need is to map the network share to a drive on your computer.

Caveat, I use this method because the server is my central storage location.

Step by step:

1. Right-click the "My Music" folder in your Music Library.
2. Under location, select the folder on the mapped drive or if you are using an entire mapped drive, just the drive itself.
3. It will ask you if you want to move the files, the local library was empty so I say yes.
4. Hit OK, and you're done.

Easy right?

Hope you enjoy this solution.

Thanks for your contribution WraithLunati. However you've totally missed the fact that the problem being discussed here deals with connecting to a share via DFS (Distributed File System) rather than directly to a share as you are describing.

What we are attempting is a connection to \\AD_domain_name\Mount_name.
What you describe is a connection to \\Server_name\Share_name.

Thanks anyway!

RS