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I need to work out if is is possible to set up a shortcut on a network shared drive (on a Windows server 2016 file server) that points back to a file on the host machine the user is logged in to.
So, if I log on to machine A and click the link it needs to open a folder in \machineA\C$:\users\%username%\
If a user logs on from machine B and clicks the link it needs to open \machineb\c$\users\%username%\
If I set the shortcut to use \%localhost%\c$:\users\%username%\ it tells me the target is not valid. it only seems to want to work if I set an actual machine name, as in \machinea\c$:\users\%username%\ but this will not work for obvious reasons.
So, does anyone know if this is possible and, if it is, how do I format the path for the shortcut?
The idea is basically to make the users start using Sharepoint without going through the process of training and reminding them all to use this rather than the current process. The Sharepoint data will be synced to each machine and the shortcut will redirect them to the locally synced folder.
Hello GarethDavies-6974,
It is only a trivial observation, but 3 of the 4 UNC paths in your message refer to the share "C$:" (three characters, the third of which is a colon) - the share name is actual "C$" (just two characters). The colon is possibly what makes the target invalid.
Gary
sorry, that was a type (wrote once, copy and pasted then changed machine name). The shortcut I have been trying to use is actually
"%localhost%\c$\Users\%username%\" and it still gives me the same problem. If I try to use this locally it translates the %username% to my ID but says it can't find the target so the issue is not the :
So I have found using localhost works as long as you do not want to also use %username%, doing this rewrites the shortcut so it looks for the username of the person that created the shortcut. Clearly this is not going to work in my situation.
What DOES work is using "%USERPROFILE%\<Parent Folder>\<Child Folder>\"
This has been tested and is working as I type on multiple test machines for multiple users.
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Try putting the string in a batch and call the batch from shortcut.
--please don't forget to Accept as answer if the reply is helpful--
It does not like the path, it doesn't tell me anything but it doesn't open the target folder either.
Seems to work here
explorer.exe \%localhost%\c$\users\%username%\
does not work on any machine I try it on, same error on every one of them
Users are probably not administrators.
I'm the user and I am Enterprise admin. Due to the nature of the work done by the users here they are all local admins.
Note: If I use \<machine name>\c$\users\%username%\ it opens the folder, it only fails when I use \%localhost%\
I'd suggest starting a case here with product support.
https://support.serviceshub.microsoft.com/supportforbusiness
--please don't forget to Accept as answer if the reply is helpful--
There is no need to use %localhost% or C$. Since the user has logged on to the desktop, you just need to refer to the C:\ drive.
Set the shortcut to C:\users\%username%
Hi,
"localhost" is not an environment variable. Try setting the shortcut to \localhost\c$\users\%username%\
Best Regards，
Ian Xue
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That works until I expand it to \localhost\c$\%username%....
The shortcut works fine as long as the user who created the shortcut is logged in, if another user tries to use it they cannot access the folder because it looks for \localhost\c$\<user ID that created shortcut>....
What actually works is "%USERPROFILE%\<parent folder>\<child folder>\""