how do I Refresh "My Computer" network drives for vb 2005 data access
Since windows 2000 came out there has been annoying red "X" on My Computer's network drives.
If you click on them, they go away and the files are displayed.
In VB 2005, the mycomputer.filesystem.drives.item(n) does not refesh them and directory.getfiles("P:\") returns an error "could not find part of the path P:\"
When I double click on P: in my computer, the error goes away and I can read the files again.
This is annoying becuase I write a lot of network applications.
How can I implement code in my program to refresh drive "P:"?
I just tried :
Using swAs StreamWriter =New StreamWriter("P:\temp.log")
That does not work also...
| It is really annoying having to code my programs to trap a "\" in the drive name field and ask for the address |
|
All my programs use the unc path, never mapped drive. it never asks for the address either. The only thing that cause problem is that if one of the machine got rebooted and the share has password, one will get error accessing the unc path. It seems that the work around is to run "net use" first to map the drive.
Try this:
Dim prcProcess As New System.Diagnostics.ProcessWith prcProcess
'DELETE NETWORK DRIVE With .StartInfo.FileName =
"net.exe".Arguments =
"use x: /delete".UseShellExecute =
False.CreateNoWindow =
TrueEnd WithCall .Start() 'Drive is unmountedCall .WaitForExit()'CREATE NETWORK DRIVE With .StartInfo.FileName =
"net.exe".Arguments =
"use x: \\192.168.0.3\Mp3s".UseShellExecute =
False.CreateNoWindow =
TrueEnd WithCall .Start() 'Drive is mountedCall .WaitForExit()End WithprcProcess.Dispose()
prcProcess =
Nothingfor more information about How to connect and disconnect a network drive in Windows XP please visit http://support.microsoft.com/kb/308582/en-us
Hope this can help!
Best Regards,
Amr Ouf
If you see this POST is the answer to your quesiton, please mark as an answer.
Thank you Amr.
This is like everything else in VB, a nudge in the right direction. I hope that one day they will make it as simple as system.io.net.refresh("S:")
I have another common annoying problem tonight. (I have 4 computers, 1 xp home as a server, 1 98 workstation and 2 - win 2k laptops.) When I use \\server names on my laptop or net use commands, I get "Error 71...No More Connections can be made" I think that microsoft really made a bad money decision with this "10 resource connection" limit to workstations.
I think I might end up installing linux servers for me and my customers in the future.
System.diagnostics looks interesting. I wish also that there was an quicker, easier, more organized way to find the system calls like microsoft.visualbasic.left() or system.IO.path... I spend most of my time hunting for solutions to simple problems in VB.
My other beef is with Microsoft bug reporting.... I have found bugs in XP home and I can not let microsoft know without paying them for support. There should be an easier way for the general public to tell microsoft what is not working.
Thanks again for the solutions, they are functional workarounds.
Mike
This is a C# snipet but can be converted to VB if necessary.
Call this before accessing a mapped drive.
System.Diagnostics.Process.Start("net.exe", @"use P: \\server\share");
System.Threading.Thread.Sleep(2000); // wait 2 seconds for system to catch up of loop your next hits....
This will launch the DOS Net functions and refresh the drive availability.
Downside to this method is you will get the CMD window popup. Just set the properties of the
CMD window to Close on Exit and make the window size small enough not to be annoying. This
will work, I have validated it even from a cold boot.
This method does negate the value of using drive letter associations so I will be researching a better
way so the server name/share does not need to be defined. I have always prefered drive letter association
since I create industrial applications that are implemented globally. With drive letter association the users of
the apps setup the drive association at the OS level and not the app level so the app does not care what server
it is referencing. Good luck trying to get an I.T. guy to change his server name to match your app !
