Quick question concerning windows browser addresses

[Ezarkal]

Hi all,

I have a question for those of you more savvy with computer than me.

Our recently made the move from a local server to an server ("recently" was last night).

Now that poses a bit of a problem some files that were crossed-referenced together.
You see, before we had the file address simply as "S:\mainfolder\subfolder\filename.ext", where S: was the server address on every computer. That way, every computer had the same access to the same file from the same address, which made it easy to cross reference to other files.
Now, the online server will auto-synch a local folder on everyone's computer. So we are stuck with something like "C:\Users\Username\drivename\mainfolder\subfolder\filename.ext". This generates a problem since the Username will change on every pc. If I code the link for me, "Ezarkal", my colleague "mylittlepony101" will not be able to use that file unless he edit it for himself

So the question: Is there an easy way to code "Username" in the link so it will always follow the current user, or any other easy other solutions you awesome people can come up with?
(No, "don't use the online server" is not an option. It's been made clear I have no say in this matter.)

Thank you for the help.

[red assassin]

What are you passing these paths to? That's going to make the most difference, really. Typically you'd want whatever thing to allow configuration of its base directory, or use relative paths rather than absolute. You may also be able to use environment variables (e.g. %USERPROFILE% expands to C:\Users\currentusername\).


Alternatively, at your own risk, here are some hacks to get around this problem if env vars don't work and you can't modify the thing to use relative paths or a configurable base directory:

NTFS supports symlinks, so you can symlink, say, c:\mainfolder to c:\users\whatever\mainfolder. You need to be SYSTEM to create symlinks by default, which means you need to have administrator privileges on your box.

It's a giant hack, but you can also mount whatever folder path as a network share (i.e. enable sharing on that folder in Windows, and then mount \\localhost\share\mainfolder to S:), though performance may suffer if you do this.

[pjknibbs]

Yeah, I would agree with using %USERPROFILE% too, but I really don't understand why the powers that be have changed things like this anyway? Having a single copy of a file in a shared location that everyone has access to is a far better solution than having separate copies on everyone's machines that have to be synchronised, from both a usability and a backup point of view!

[Ezarkal]

Thank you guys!

With a bit of tweaking, %userprofile% solved my issues.

One of the given reasons to switch to a cloud-based server is that we now have a small satellite extension to our company. We are currently renting lab space in an "incubator building", and had no more room for expansion, so we rented labs somewhere until we get a building of our own in a few months. Our business dev. guy already had issues with accessing our internal share drive via VPN, and our server was getting old. Those were the given reasons for the switch to a cloud-based server, and I guess they make sense.

Now, why not just get a new server and some better VPN tech, that question is not for me to answer.
As shit rolls down and fall on us, I'm just trying to patch up a few obsolete systems so they can work together and we can keep working.

Now, all we have to do is wait multiple hours for files to synch across the server for when when we need them.
I guess I'll once again have to get used to carrying a USB stick around.

[red assassin]

Yeah, I mean, you can create an Azure file share and mount that (with authentication obviously!) from non-Azure systems. No server needed, no VPNs, no mucking around with syncing... That's how I'd do a cloud move like this. But even failing that, you can do the same thing with a cloud server and a share.