Comments on: How to make an old school SUBST virtual drive persistent

By: Adrian Harvey

Adrian Harvey — Fri, 10 Jun 2022 00:34:33 +0000

I added the command to the registry bas per this, my question is how can I now remove it when I no longer need it? Removing the entry from the registry doesn’t do it.

By: Russell Bride

Russell Bride — Wed, 15 Feb 2017 11:13:21 +0000

If only one user i using the machine this works.
On a per user basis, say if the machine is shared, you can add a script with the requisite subst command to the Windows startup folder.
On windows 8.1 you can open the startup folder with Windows-R shell:startup or else just type shell:startup in the address of windows explorer. Then
in that folder create the script with the necessary subst commands.

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By: Kent

Kent — Fri, 24 Jun 2011 16:49:47 +0000

In reply to Konstantin. Thanks for pointing it out. I have updated the post accordingly. Cheers.

By: Konstantin

Konstantin — Fri, 24 Jun 2011 15:09:22 +0000

The registry key worked like a charm on the Windows 7 SP1 64 bits machine of my colleague, who needed an extra drive letter and asked me for assistance.

Thanks a lot, man!

P.S. Could you please add a sentence to the article saying something like “The reboot is required to apply the changes and mount your new drive letter”. I figured it out myself, and I think the article really needs that information. Thanks in advance!

By: Linards

Linards — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 16:01:02 +0000

Thank you very much, Kent. An excellent tip! I have lost a lot of time trying to adapt Windows 7 Professional 64 bit system to previous systems running XP Pro and using subst drives D: and E: on sub-folders of C: . In XP they could be simply created by placing batch file with assign drive: path commands in Startup folder. The only problem with this setup in W-XP was that USB flash drives were assigned the same letters. However that problem could be excellently solved by free USB DLM drivers from Uwe Sieber. (I use them on W7 too).
However, this assignment does not work reliably In WIndows 7, neither in startup folder nor placing the script command in the usual HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrrentVersion\Run registry entry.
First checks show that Kents’ tip works very well on W7, including the correct USB drive assignment (D: and E: are not reassigned when adding USB flash drive. However, I have USDLM service running and do not know how it looks like without it ).

By: Lenny Gemar

Lenny Gemar — Sat, 03 Jul 2010 06:07:08 +0000

Thanks for the registry tip. I’m just updating from a W2K computer to a Windows 7 box, and the differences are kicking my ass. My primary app needed a subst drive to work properly, but running a subst in the startup folder wouldn’t work properly. I could see the subst at a command prompt, but W7 didn’t show it, and therefore my app couldn’t see it. Putting it in the registry “magically” allowed W7 and my app to see it, and consequently work. THANKS!

By: Kent

Kent — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 17:17:18 +0000

@Greg Duncan,

Thanks. It appears that this trick works in almost all versions. 🙂

Cheers.