I am currently in the process of automating the desktop deployment for my current employer. As a solution I am using Microsoft Group Policy Object (GPO) to map the network drives for the users. To date, most of my experience has been testing GPOs with Microsoft Windows 7 but today I was testing a GPO on a Windows XP desktop.

After modifying the GPO and placing the desktop in an Organizational Unit (OU) where the GPO was applied I expected the mapped drives to work, but they didn’t. After running gpresult I was able to verify that the GPO was in fact being applied, etc. I then logged on to a Microsoft Windows 7 desktop, that was in the same OU, and the drives were mapped.

The solution to this was simple. I needed to download and install the Group Policy Preference Client Side Extensions for Windows XP (KB943729) on the Windows XP desktop.

Hopefully you will find this information helpful.

Enjoy!