Member Avatar for gas55au

Hi
I have a problem connecting a Vista Home Premium computer to a Windows 98 mapped network drive on the 98 machine. They are both on the same network. The drive is mapped fine on the the Vista computer and the files can be seen however when I run a program from the mapped network drive it says the file is missing.
I have checked the drive mapping and it is exactly the same as on a windows XP computer that runs the program fine.

Any suggestions ?

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by Michael_Knight

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— given that the files are visible but the program reports "file missing", two broad causes are most likely: the application needs local installation/registry entries or a dependent file the process cannot open when run from a network location. 's question about which program it is remains important. 's suggestion to give a new Vista user admin rights and change C: permissions is risky and unlikely to address the root issue; avoid broadly changing C: permissions.

Quick troubleshooting sequence to isolate the fault:

  1. Verify local compatibility
  • Copy the entire program folder from the mapped drive to the Vista machine and run it.
    • If it fails locally: the program is likely incompatible with this Vista build (16‑bit executables will not run on 64‑bit Vista, many legacy apps require installers to register DLLs/COM entries). Install locally or use a VM if needed.
    • If it runs locally: proceed with network-specific checks.
  1. Check how the program is launched and what it needs

  • Run it from a command prompt on the mapped drive to capture console errors:

    cd /d X:\
program.exe

  • Many older apps expect local DLLs or registry entries. Running the EXE from a share does not perform those installs, so missing DLL/COM/registry entries will show as "file missing".

  1. Common network causes and quick fixes

  • UAC/elevation: an elevated helper will not see user mapped drives. To allow elevated processes to access mappings, add the registry value EnableLinkedConnections = 1 under:

    HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System

    Reboot after adding this DWORD. Back up the registry first.

  • Antivirus or Software Restriction Policies can block execution from network shares — temporarily disable AV to test.

  1. Use tracing if still unclear
  • Capture file-open failures with Sysinternals Process Monitor and filter on the program name. Look for "NAME NOT FOUND" or "ACCESS DENIED" on DLLs or data files.

If the app needs local registration or uses copy-protection, the reliable solution is to install it on the Vista machine (or run it in a VM that matches its supported OS). Avoid broad permission changes to C:, and only apply the registry change above if you see symptoms of mapped drives being invisible to elevated processes.

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Member Avatar for uniquestar

What Program are you trying to run over a network?

Member Avatar for Michael_Knight

If your sharing a folder on a vista machine from Windows 98 that has a program inside it, then you may get the message that it cannot find files, as you wont have access to the system32 folder on Vista.

My advice is to create a new user on vista and log in with that over the network, but first, give that user account admin rights for these the folder you want, plus the C drive.

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