Adding UNC paths to favorites is as easy as exploring to that UNC path, clicking the favorites menu, then clicking add to favorites. This is possible in Windows 2003 as well as Windows 2008 R2.
I need to be able to add this to everyone's favorites via GPO. Unfortunately this is not possible and the only alternative gets an error.
So I browse through the GPO editor to User Configuration > Windows Settings > Internet Explorer Maintenance > URL's and click on Favorites and Links
I try to add a favorite called Departments, for example.
I set the URL as \\servername\Departments and get this error:
Internet Customization Wizard 8: Specify a valid URL.
So I try this route setting the URL as: file:\\servername\Departments
It works but then when I test it, I get an error: Windows cannot find (null).
I've tried file://\\servername\Departments, same error. I've tried smb:// as well, that one didn't work at all.
Does nobody do this? I'd rather not use drive mappings as users have many more than 22 (minus A, B, C and D) share paths they need access to. This is a multiuser, terminal server Citrix environment. What do people do now days? I refuse to create shortcuts in Citrix to iexplore, this is out of the question since users will be using published desktops.