SUBST

Substitute a drive letter for a network or local path.

syntax
      SUBST drive_letter: path
   
      SUBST 
   
      SUBST drive_letter: /D

key
   SUBST with no parameters will display current SUBST drives

   /D : Delete the drive_letter substitution.

Compared to mapping a drive with NET USE the SUBST command allows mapping to a subfolder of a drive share - for the storage of user profiles this reduces the number of shares you need to create on the server.

Bugs
Under NT 4 SUBST'ed drives cannot be disconnected using the Explorer GUI - this was fixed in Windows 2000.

In Windows 2000 (and above) you will have problems creating, accessing and deleting drive mappings with SUBST.

However under Win 2K/XP the functionality of the NET USE command is improved so you can now do
NET USE g: \\server\share\folder1\folder2

If the network resource is unavailable (ie the server is down) SUBST will continually retry - unlike NET USE which will try to connect once and fail - depending on your application this may be a good or a bad thing - a subst drive that is not available will badly impact performance of most applications.

Notice that when SUBST is used against a local shared folder, it will create a RECYCLER for that drive. The RECYCLER is not removed when the drive substitution is removed, but can be deleted manually.

"A man should never be ashamed to own he has been in the wrong, which is saying in other words, that he is wiser today than he was yesterday" - Alexander Pope (thoughts on various subjects)

Related Commands:

NET USE - Map a drive letter to a network drive

Equivalent Linux BASH commands:

none - unix has mount points