Redirect Windows Folders to OneDrive for Business
This is a step-by-step guide to configure Windows folder redirection. With folder redirection, the standard Windows folders, Desktop, Documents, Images, Music and Videos, can be redirected to a Zee Drive network drive that is connected to OneDrive for Business.
Folders can be redirected to the root of OneDrive for Business or to a subfolder in OneDrive for Business. If the subfolder does not exist then Zee Drive will automatically create the subfolder in the users' OneDrive for Business. For example, the Documents folder can be redirected to the subfolder Home\Documents within users' OneDrive for Business. If the Home\Documents subfolder does not exist, Zee Drive will create it when the users sign in to Windows.
Zee Drive folder redirection requires that a network drive or virtual folder is first mapped to the connection option 'OneDrive for Business of the signed in user'. If this has not been set up then folders will not be redirected when users sign in to Windows. Refer to this guide to set up a connection to OneDrive for Business if you haven't set it up already
Let's get started and configure a redirection of the Windows Documents folder to a subfolder in OneDrive for Business named Documents under a parent folder named Home. The path will be Home\Documents.
From the administration console, click the action button then click "Customise the end user experience"
On the submenu, click "Set up Windows folder redirections"
Click the action button and click the 'Set up a new folder redirection' option
Choose from a list of the supported Windows folders to redirect, in this example, we will choose Documents, then click the Next button
Now choose where to redirect the folder to. It can either be to the root of OneDrive for Business or to a subfolder (up to 3 folders deep) within OneDrive for Business. For our example, click the option "A subfolder in OneDrive for Business" and enter Home\Documents in to the edit box. Zee Drive will automatically create this folder structure (Home\Documents) for users when Zee Drive starts-up on their computers. Click the Apply button to continue
Zee Drive now shows a summary of your folder redirection. Your changes will not be "live" until you click the Publish button
Before publishing, you can set up other redirections or you can choose to restrict the types of computers and the users (by group membership) that the folder redirections will be applied to. Any restrictions you configure will apply to all the redirections. Click the action button to access these options
When you're ready to publish your changes, click the Publish button. You'll be directed to a further confirmation screen. Click the Publish button again to make your changes live. After publishing your changes, the next time users sign in to Windows, Zee Drive will apply the redirections you have set up
Verifying The Redirection
After publishing redirection changes, you may want to check that the redirection is working as expected on users' computers.
If you have just published a change, it will not take effect for users until their Zee Drive is restarted. Zee Drive can be restarted by a user either by choosing the restart option from the subscription status screen, or by signing out of Windows and signing back in again.
In the step-by-step guide above, we redirected the Documents folder to a subfolder of OneDrive for Business called Home\Documents. So we'll continue this scenario when checking that Documents has been redirected successfully.
Open Windows File Explorer and locate the Documents folder in the left hand navigation pane. Assuming the folder structure Home\Documents did not already exist in the user's OneDrive for Business (Zee Drive will create it at start-up), then the folder will appear empty in the right hand pane
Click in the address bar of File Explorer and it will show the actual path that it is redirected to. In the example below, OneDrive for Business is mapped to the P:\ drive, therefore the full path in File Explorer shows as P:\Home\Documents
Now locate the path P:\Home\Documents in File Explorer to verify its existence in the folder tree
Right click on the Documents folder, expand the Zee Drive sub menu, then click "Open in web browser"
The default web browser will open on the user's OneDrive for Business and specifically the "Documents" folder. This verifies that Zee Drive has successfully redirected the Windows Documents folder to Home\Documents in the user's OneDrive for Business
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