I am using this wonderful utility called VisualSubst that allows to reconnect virtual drives on log on. Here is my initial set-up:
To enable Recycle Bin for virtual drive on Windows 7:
- Browse to
C:\Users\<Your username>
- Right click on one of the less frequently used folders (for example, Saved Games) and select Properties.
- Select the Location tab.
- Type in the virtual drive path (in my example,
W:\) and click OK. - You will be asked whether you want to move all the files. The decision is yours, it depends whether you have files in that folder that need to be accessible. I did not have any so I choose No.
Repeat the steps above for all users on the computer who need to access the virtual drive.
To verify that the virtual drive has the Recycle Bin now, right click on Recycle Bin icon on the desktop and select Properties. You should see the virtual drive in the list.
One of the oddities of this workaround is that the source folder will now appear as Saved Games when browsed in Windows Explorer. To fix that, you need to delete hidden file named desktop.ini in the source folder.
To undo this change and restore the location of the special folder, right click on virtual drive, select Properties and in Location tab change the path to the original folder (in my example, C:\Users\<Your username>\Saved Games).
This workaround also works for network drives as well.
It still works on Windows 10! 🙂
COOL, works great
One glitch I noticed: When you create a subfolder of the virtual drive, Windows Explorer treats it like the “Location” that has been re-purposed. For instance, if you re-purpose Saved Games for T:, entering T:\subfolder changes the top menu to “New Contact”, “New Contact Group”, “Import” and “Export”, and you lose the ribbon.
Looks like there is a way to disable this but I haven’t tried it yet.
https://superuser.com/questions/513298/irritating-auto-changing-column-types-in-windows-explorer-in-case-of-audio-video
Wow, this is excellent. I’ve been looking for this fix for ages. I asked at answers.microsoft.com last year and was essentially told that it couldn’t be done. Too bad I didn’t find your posting back then.
Thank so much.
Works great, but I find that there are only two folders that I can use for this: Music and Saved Games. None of the other folders in the my User folder show the Location tab in their properties.
Is it possible to create folders for this purpose?
Thanks.
I used “3D Objects” folder for my mapped drive. There is also a registry hack that doesn’t require use of special folders but I haven’t tried it yet.