How to make Windows 7 remember credentials for a Samba network drive?

Question

I have a Samba share on my Ubuntu server which I map as a network drive on my Windows 7 Professional computer.

After every reboot it shows the drive as disconnected and to access it I have to renter my password even though every time I enter the password I check the 'Remember my credentials' box.

Is there way to have Windows 7 remember the credentials on a reboot/shutdown or is it just to remember them per session?

Answer 1

This issue bothered me for ages. What finally fixed it was the following:

1. Disconnect any existing mapped drives
2. Map a new drive; check the boxes for "Reconnect" and "Use different credentials"
3. When you are prompted, enter SERVER\USERNAME for the user name. For example, if your server's name is SHIRE, and the user name is Baggins, enter SHIRE\Baggins for the user name.
4. Enter the password as usual.
5. Check the "remember credentials" box.

If I understand correctly, some whacky security policy is wiping out the credentials because you're not authenticating against a windows domain. Adding the server name tricks Windows into thinking there's a domain there, and so it dutifully remembers the password. Or something.

Big shout out to Microsoft for this. Well done. /sarcasm

http://alinconstantin.blogspot.com/2009/10/windows-7-cannot-access-smb-shares-on.html

http://alinconstantin.blogspot.com/2010/03/network-shares-on-smb-server-could-not.html

For what it's worth, I tried several other things before this, and I don't know if any of them had an effect. See these blog entries for details:

Answer 2

I've had this problem, and I've solved it adding the logon credentials to the Control Panel / Stored User Names and Passwords (this is for a Windows XP / Windows Server 2003 host. There's the same thing in Windows 7 / Windows Server 2008 but it may be called a little different, like just "Users and Passwords". Sadly I don't have an English Windows 7 host at the moment).

You can also obtain the same results with the command line using net use. For example if you need to add a share called SHIRE\Baggins (@Will Martin nice example! :) ) to a device called S: you type:

net use S: \\SHIRE\Baggins <password> /USER:<domain>\<user> /SAVECRED /PERSISTENT:YES

(<password> <domain> and <user> are obviously just placeholders for the actual logon data.)

This should mount the share AND add the logon credentials to the "Stored User Names and Passwords" control panel applet.

I hope this helps.