

Try using drive P: for the Pictures folder on a shared PC, for example, or V: for Videos.In many cases, you will need to change the permissions that a certain group or individual user has to a file or folder. If you choose to assign a drive letter, consider using one that includes a mnemonic shortcut. In either case, you can choose an option to connect with a separate set of credentials than the one you signed in to your PC with. You'll find the newly created shortcuts stored in %AppData%\Microsoft\Windows\Network Shortcuts. The difference between the two techniques is simple: If you map a drive, you must assign a drive letter to it, whereas the network location shortcut doesn't require a drive letter.

Regardless of which technique you use, the shortcut you create shows up in the Network Locations section of This PC. (Don't be confused by the explanatory text that asks you to enter a website name that UNC path will work just fine.) That opens a dialog box where you can enter the full path to the shared folder, using the same \\Computername\Sharename syntax.

The time-saving, frustration-free alternative is to create mapped shortcuts to those shared locations so that they're always available when you click This PC in the File Explorer navigation pane. It can also be frustrating if an available network resource isn't visible in File Explorer's Network node. Browsing for shared network resources can be a tedious process.
