Powershell: how to map a network drive with a different username/password

**Background:** Assume I use the following powershell script from my local machine to automatically map some network drives.


$net = $(New-Object -ComObject WScript.Network);
$net.MapNetworkDrive("p:", "\\papabox\files");

$net = $(New-Object -ComObject WScript.Network);
$net.MapNetworkDrive("q:", "\\quebecbox\files");

## problem -- this one does not work because my username/password
## is different on romeobox
$net = $(New-Object -ComObject WScript.Network);
$net.MapNetworkDrive("r:", "\\romeobox\files");

**Question:** How do I modify the script so that I can also connect to romeobox, even though my username/password on romeobox is different from that of the other two boxes?

If you need a way to store the password without putting it in plain text in your script or a data file, you can use the DPAPI to protect the password so you can store it safely in a file and retrieve it later as plain text e.g.:

# Stick password into DPAPI storage once - accessible only by current user
Add-Type -assembly System.Security
$passwordBytes = [System.Text.Encoding]::Unicode.GetBytes("Open Sesame")
$entropy = [byte[]](1,2,3,4,5)
$encrytpedData = [System.Security.Cryptography.ProtectedData]::Protect( `
$passwordBytes, $entropy, 'CurrentUser')
$encrytpedData | Set-Content -enc byte .\password.bin

# Retrieve and decrypted password
$encrytpedData = Get-Content -enc byte .\password.bin
$unencrytpedData = [System.Security.Cryptography.ProtectedData]::Unprotect( `
$encrytpedData, $entropy, 'CurrentUser')
$password = [System.Text.Encoding]::Unicode.GetString($unencrytpedData)
$password

$net = new-object -ComObject WScript.Network
$net.MapNetworkDrive("r:", "\\romeobox\files", $false, "domain\user", "password")

Should do the trick,

Kindness,

Dan

Came here looking for how to map drives using PowerShell?

There's a simpler way with PowerShell3.0. `New-PSDrive` has been updated with the `-persist` option. E.g.

New-PSDrive -Name U -PSProvider FileSystem -Root \\yourserver\your\folder -Credential yourdomain\username -Persist

In the past, `New-PSDrive` affected only the current PowerShell session. `-persist` causes the mapping to be registered with the O/S, as it were. See [New-PSDrive][1]

To answer the original question, you can vary the credentials used. Using `-Credential` to vary the domain\username causes Windows to prompt for a password. Another alternative is to pass a PSCredential object as in the example below. See [Get-Credential][2] for more detail.

PS C:\> $User = "mydomain\username"
PS C:\> $PWord = ConvertTo-SecureString -String "mypassword" -AsPlainText -Force
PS C:\> $Credential = New-Object -TypeName System.Management.Automation.PSCredential -ArgumentList $User, $PWord
PS C:\> New-PSDrive -Name U -PSProvider FileSystem -Root \\domain\some\folder -Credential $Credential -Persist


[1]:

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[2]:

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$User = "user"
$PWord = ConvertTo-SecureString -String "password" -AsPlainText -Force
$Credential = New-Object -TypeName System.Management.Automation.PSCredential -ArgumentList $User, $PWord
$net = $(New-Object -ComObject WScript.Network)
$net.MapNetworkDrive("r:", "\\server\share")

I found this easy one liner worked in my case (little "out of the box" thinking ;) )

(Start-Process -FilePath "C:\windows\system32\NET.exe" -ArgumentList "USE I: \\Server\Volume /USER:XXXXX *password* /persistent:yes" -Wait -Passthru).ExitCode

And as an added bonus, you get an nice exitcode to report off of. Hope that helps.

If you are set on using powershell native (if there is such a thing), then you can use:

New-SMBMapping -LocalPath "V:" -RemotePath $NetworkPath -UserName $UserAndDomain -Password $pass

See:

[To see links please register here]

There are some additional nuggets like Remove-SMBMapping, etc.