Initializing the root folders to display problem

Initializing the root folders to display occurs when a system is using office 2007 with mapped network drives which are currently unavailable, and the current office 2007 application attempts to view the root of each drive letter.

Depending on the amount of network drives this initializing can take over a minute, which may not seem like a long time, but when you’re waiting I’m sure you’ll agree it’s not acceptable.

The problem is most prominent for laptop users who work both on networked and standalone environments.

Although there is currently no way to change the initializing timeout period of Office 2007 there are a number of workarounds that can help prevent this.

The solution is to basically not have any network drives mapped via drive letters when you’re not connected to a network, there are two ways we can go about this.

Firstly we can setup network shortcuts as opposed to drive letters or setup 2 simple batch files one to disconnect and one to reconnect and map network drives so it can be used on or off a network.

Network shortcuts
to create a network shortcut go to My Computer > Network Places > Add a network place > this will open the wizard > Select Next > Next > now you’ll be asked a for a network location > type in the path or Browse and find the place you wish to create the shortcut to.
Once this is done simply copy the network shortcut to wherever you like.

Creating a batch file to map network drives
creating a batch file to map or disconnect network drives requires very little scripting knowledge, we’ve put together some examples that simple need to be modified to suit your needs.

Use an application such as notepad to create your batch files

Create a Net Use command for each drive you wish to map

The syntax of the command should be
Net use letter to be mapped: \\server name\server share
for example Net Use Drive Letter to map: \\server\server_share

If you need to add domain and password information you can use
net use Z: \\server name\share name /user:domain\username password

Once you’re happy with your file save it as filename.bat

Creating the second batch file to disconnect network drives
Once again use the Net Use command with
Net Use drive letter: /delete
for example net use z: /delete

Again once done save as a .bat file

If you’d like to test using Net Use before creating the .bat files the command can be run from the DOS shell ( this can be accessed by typing CMD at the Start > Run menu

Make sure both bat files are saved to convenient place where it’s easy to run them from such as the desktop.

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Computer adviser initializing the root folders to display article