Manage persistent connections

The Persistent Connections subkey stores data about the most recent connections to network drives. Understanding how to configure persistent connections on Windows NT can help your system start faster and let you control which network connections NT makes at startup.
You can make changes to the way NT works with persistent connections via the registry. Open the Registry Editor, and navigate to the following key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Network\Persistent Connections

In the Persistent Connections directory, you'll find values that you can alter to control network connections. The values with single letters show the Universal Naming Convention path of the 10 most recent drives that you've mapped to. You can set the order in which the Map Network Drive list displays those UNC paths with the Order value.

The SaveConnections value determines whether the connections will remain persistent after logon. (This is a yes/no value.) Of course, you can turn the SaveConnections option on or off in the Map Network Drive window, but this tweak allows you to change the value in a logon script.

If you want to prevent users from mapping persistent connections to network drives, you can accomplish this with a quick registry tweak. By applying the following registry change to your workstation and/or server, you can make sure that when mapping to an administrative share on a server, the share isn't accidentally left connected.

[HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Network\Persistent Connections]
"SaveConnections"="no"

Note: Editing the registry is risky, so make sure you have a verified backup before making any changes.