How to use the Net Use command in Windows

The net use command is a Command Prompt command used to connect, delete, and configure connections to shared resources, such as mapped drives and network printers.

It is one of many net commands like net send, net time, net user, net view, etc.

What is the net use command?

The Net Use command is a command line tool introduced in Windows 2000. It is now available in all subsequent versions of the Windows operating system. The Net Use command is used to manage network connections. This command can be used to map network drives, connect to shared folders, disconnect from shares, etc.

The Net Use command is quite useful because it can be used to automate many different tasks related to network management. For example, you can use the Net Use Command to connect or disconnect from shared resources, display information, and set user-specific settings.

Availability of the net use command

This command is available in Command Prompt on Windows 10 , Windows 8 , Windows 7 , Windows Vista, and Windows XP , as well as in older versions of Windows and in Windows Server operating systems.

Recovery Console, the offline repair utility in Windows XP, also includes the net use command, but you can't use it in this tool.

Note : The availability of certain command switches and other command syntax may vary between operating systems.

Syntax of net use command

This command uses the following general syntax:

net use [{devicename | *}] [\\computername\sharename[\volume] [{password | *}]] [/user:[domainname\]username] [/user:[dotteddomainname\]username] [/user:[username@dotteddomainname] [/home {devicename | *} [{password | *}]] [/persistent:{yes | no}] [/smartcard] [/savecred] [/delete] [/help] [/?]

Net use command options:

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How to use the Net Use command in Windows

Here are the steps you need to follow to use the Net Use command in Windows:

Step 1 : Go to Command Prompt and type net use .

Step 2 : The Net Use command will display current connections if no parameters are specified.

Step 3 : If you want to see the options available with the Net Use command, you need to type net use /? or net use /help and press Enter . If you want to know more about a particular connection, you can also use the /? option. For example, for the 'Persistent' option , you need to type net use /? Persistent and press Enter.

Example of net use command

Here are some different ways you can use this command:

Temporarily mapped drive

net use * "\\server\my media" /persistent:no

In this example, the net use command is used to connect to the my media shared folder on a computer named server . The my media folder will be mapped to the highest available drive letter [*] , in this example y:, but will not persist this drive mapping every time you log in to the computer [/persistent:no] .

Permanently mapped drive

net use e: \\usrsvr002\smithmark Ue345Ii /user:pdc01\msmith2 /savecred /p:yes

Here is a slightly more complex example that you might see in a business environment.

In this net use command example, the author wants to map his e: drive to the smithmark share on usrsvr002. The author wants to connect as another existing user account [/user] with the name msmith2 stored on the pdc01 domain with the password Ue345Ii. The author does not want to map this drive manually every time the computer boots [/p:yes] , nor does he want to enter the username and password every time [/savecred] .

List all shared resources

net use

In this simple example of the net use command, you get a list of all shared resources currently in use in the logged in user account. In the example, the result in the Command Prompt displays "Z: \\server\shared folder\" because z: is the drive letter that is connected to the shared folder on the server.

The message "There are no entries in this list." will be displayed if there are not any connections currently established.

Unmap a drive

net use p: /delete

The final example of net use is to delete [/delete] the currently mapped drive, in this case, p: .