Network Drive or Folder in a Library in Windows 7

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Windows 7 do not allow including network drives or folders in a library because folders are indexed first in order to be added to a library. In case of network drives, cannot be indexed unless they are synchronized. This tutorial will help to add folders and drive to a library.

Step 1

Right click on the network folder or network drive to include to a library and select “Always Available Offline“. A synchronization process will start for  network folder.

Note: this method has one disadvantage that it actually copies (syncs) all network files locally so that they are available offline. It will make networking ineffective.

Step 2
Add the folder it to library.

Solution 2

Step 1

Make a new temporary folder on your hard drive i.e. F:\Temp

Step 2

Make another sub-folder in the above folder. i.e.  F:\Temp\Users. Link the folder to library using Include in Library option

Step 3

Delete the folder; F:\Temp\Users

Step 4

Use the mklink in command prompt to make link. Name the link same as created folder:  i.e – mklink /d f:\temp\users \\server\users. You will have a non-indexed network path as a library.

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