Drive Mappings with NWShareHandles and RestoreDrives

• Microsoft Windows operating system versions 3.1, 3.11
• Microsoft Windows for Workgroups version 3.1

SUMMARY

If you are using Novell NetWare in conjunction with Microsoft Windows and you try to change drive mappings inside a virtual machine (VM), the condition of those drive mappings after you exit the VM depends on two Novell Netware switches: NWshareHandles and RestoreDrives.

Both these switches are set in the 386 Enhanced section of the Network dialog box in Control Panel. Changing these settings modifies the following lines in the NetWare section of the SYSTEM.INI file:

   NWShareHandles= <true> or <false>
   RestoreDrives= <true> or <false>

MORE INFORMATION

The default setting of NWShareHandles=FALSE causes NetWare to behave with the Inherited-visibility method. The optional setting of NWShareHandles=True makes the 386 enhanced mode NetWare driver use the Global-visibility method instead.

The NWShareHandles setting is a function of the Novell redirector.With this setting set to False, new virtual machines (VMs) inherit mappings from the MS-DOS environment. However, if you add a mapping, it appears only in that VM. Base mappings remain untouched and new ones in each VM are unique.

When you exit Windows and RestoreDrives is set to True, Windows restores your mappings to the way things were before you started Windows. This is important because mappings change as you use them, especially if they are not map rooted.