Creating a virtual drive letter allows Syncplicity shared folders to look the same as a mounted file server share. For example, if a user has access to multiple shared folders such as "Company Share" and "Sales Share", Syncplicity can be configured so that both of these are located on an a virtual drive letter such as "S:\" and users will access them by going to S:\Company Share and S:\Sales Share respectively.

Creating a Virtual Drive Letter

Windows also provides a built-in mechanism to create the drive letter via a registry key. The registry key is:

Location: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Session Manager\DOS Devices

Key name:
“S:” where “S:” is the drive letter

Key value (Type is String):
“\\??\C:\some\directory” where “C:\some\directory” is the directory this virtual drive should map to

The registry key can be created either any of the standard mechanisms to edit the registry such as RegEdit, via a .REG file, or Active Directory Group Policy.

After the registry key is populated, the computer will need to be rebooted to show the new drive letter.

Configuring Syncplicity to use a Custom Default Location for New Shares

Syncplicity uses a folder named “Syncplicity Folders” under My Documents as the default location for any shared folder that is synchronized to the machine. The default location for “Syncplicity Folders” is settable in a registry key:

Location:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Syncplicity\1.0\

Key name:
“RootSyncPointFolder”

Key value (Type is String):
“S:\” where “S:\” is the path to use as the new default location under which new shares will be stored.

After the reg key is created, Syncplicity will use this new location after the client is next restarted.

Commandline Configuration Example

If you are familiar with the DOS command-line, an easy way to set both and reboot the machine is using the command-line or via a .BAT file within an elevated command-prompt:

 
 reg add "HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\DOS Devices" /v S: /t REG_SZ /d "\??\C:\some\directory" /f
 reg add “HKCU\Software\Syncplicity\1.0” /v RootSyncPointFolder /t REG_SZ /d “S:\”
 shutdown –r –t 300 –c “Reboot required for software installation”