DISQUS

Jim · 2 years ago

That fixed it! Easy as pie when you know how!

Many thanks.

Cheers.

Karen Allen · 2 years ago

When I googled "office 2007 initializing the root folders to display", this was the first hit!! Woohoo, great info, solved our issue. Thanks tons.

Karen

Andy · 1 year ago

Great info fixed the problem : thanks

David · 1 year ago

This is sad because I still like to have my drives mapped even though they are in disconnected state (10 of them).

Usually we work at multiple locations and remapping the drives each time you enter a different network is not productive.

Greg · 1 year ago

Man - you just saved me a lot of grief! This problem was driving us crazy!! thank you.

Blake · 1 year ago

I am running Windows XP. Where do I go to disconnect the network drives?

Please Help

Alexander · 1 year ago

This was very helpful. It fixed my problem.

John · 1 year ago

Why can't someone tell microsoft this is crap! If the mapped drive isn't available then don't look there. using a laptop or mobile device then your drives will not always be mapped. Why have to unmap and remap each time, whats the point of being mobile

James · 1 year ago

too many indian working at microsoft

phil · 1 year ago

I agree that this is poor programming on Microsoft's part. With a laptop in multiple locations, I don't want to disconnect drives. Why can't they use the standard "Save AS" window that other programs use?

Mary · 1 year ago

This has driven me crazy!!!! and such a simple solution. Thank you

Oppfinnar Jocke · 1 year ago

It's really amazing that MS ships a much-hyped product like Office 2007 with this defunct behavior. As many have already said, with laptops you don't want to connect/disconnect drives manually.

I guess the real problem is that no-one at MS really uses Office, they just develop... otherwise this problem would have been noted and fixed long ago...
// OppfinnarJocke

PB · 1 year ago

I tried this but it was not the fix for my issue. We have a Novell network, and all drives are connected. Every time Office still initializes the root folders. Any other suggestions?

Henry Robinson · 1 year ago

Good old Microsoft. I think thart one of their design principles is, "if it works, break it".

Anthony · 1 year ago

Thanks for the tip. The nuisance is now explained.

Sathi · 1 year ago

This is the first hit from google. It helps me a lot. It works great. Thank you very much

TM · 1 year ago

I too have a user with this issue on a Novell network. None of the network drives are disconnected (nor do they show as being disconnected). He gets the initializing root folder dialogue and then when he clicks on the folder once they're displayed Word just hangs. He is able to browse to the same folder using My Computer or by right clicking on start and picking Explorer.

Any ideas for us Novell users with this issue?

Harold · 1 year ago

Wow, I put up with this issue for over a year. I can't believe it was that easy to fix. Thank you!!!

ivan · 1 year ago

thanks a lot too! it's one less headache...

Sean · 1 year ago

Deleting mapped drives is not practical when the portable computer moves from network to network. There needs to be a better option / control of this feature in Office 07. We have sales people who have to connect to different networks. This feature means that they have to keep a list of drives to map to for each location, and delete / remap when they want file access. This is completely unacceptable. These are sales people, not computer people, and making them do this sort of work is going backwards, in terms of computing servicability. This can't be an uncommon situation for professionals. Modbility and transparancy are key to business productivity. There has to be a better answer.

Ben · 1 year ago

Sean, I feel your pain.

Are you in charge of these networks? I'm going to assume your environment includes Windows somewhere along the authentication path. Maybe you could automate drive mapping for each specific network with a set of login scripts?

Sean · 1 year ago

Thanks Ben. Problem is complex, with 3rd parties, separate head office network, and peer to peer mappings. Scripts will work, but also looking for way to quickly kill the process or disable on demand. I will post any useful discoveries.

Wayne · 1 year ago

I agree that this is a total pain and would hope that MS provide a proper fix, upgrade to Vista... :-(
I guess a work around for those users on the move between sites is to create seperate desktop batch files (per site), which map network drives using the faithful NET USE G: \\servername\sharename command. At the end of a seesion the user could then run the NET USE G: \\servername\sharename /DELETE to disconnect the drives and eliminate this particular issue? Just a thought.

Tim · 1 year ago

One thing I don't see noted here is that MS Office products are the only ones with this issue. It's a pain to try to remember to connect and disconnect drives every day. I can't imagine it would be that difficult to check if a drive is attached before spending minutes searching for it.

Erik · 1 year ago

Thank you very much. Useful info indeed!

Brian · 1 year ago

So is there a fix for this very annoying problem? Is there a way to get rid of the "value added feature"? I don't want to map and un-map drive as I move around and/or VPN on my laptop.

Jamie · 1 year ago

I think the feeling I'm getting is that, no, there is no fix, just workarounds which are not feasable for many users. This is a total cock-up on MS part. An infuriating, stupid, dumb, childish bug.

Chang9851 · 1 year ago

Just sharing with your, hope it help. For those having slow file searching or open, try to turn off the "automatically search for network folder and printers" in folder options.

Go to Control panel then select folder option, click on view tab then uncheck the "automatically search for network folder and printers".

Saleem · 1 year ago

Very Good Solution.Saved me lot of time.It was driving me crazy

Roy · 1 year ago

Good workaround. No solution. It is clear that too many people are willing to accept just a workaround.

Look, when you click on your "My Computer" icon, any unmapped drives show up as "Unmapped Drive." Therefore, going in to any polling for drives that triggers the 'Initializing Root Folders' routine, Office knows (or can know) that the drives are disconnected. It is a simple matter for Microsoft to check that value before setting of looking for unconnected drives.

Come on, Microsoft. This is not rocket science. (Okay, maybe it is rocket science, but it is nevertheless basic stuff for a programmer.)

And that the problem existed (at least) in Office2003 and not fixed by 2007, with as many postings on boards as there are about this problem, is simply arrogant.

pierougo · 1 year ago

may be a suggestion for anyone? My history. May be that I am the only one so tired to wait "Initializing the root folders..." so I uninstalled office 2007 and reinstalled office 2003!!!
the problem remains... sigh.. sigh.. I continue waiting when I open folders in Word, in Excel...but NOT (!!!) when I open in Notepad. naturally I don't know why. but this means that there is a dll (or something other)changed by office 2007, that remains in windows even disinstalling office. the new installation of office 2003 doesn't put the old dll. you can believe that it is a BASIC driver to find folders, but I think that it isn't, because notepad and paint use another driver and this one works well, unchanged. I hope that if someone can find the .DLL (or something other) that office 2007 puts in windows, may be that re-moving this one and reinstalling the old one, the painfully problem of "Initializing the root folders..." will be solved. whitout connecting and disconnecting drives every hour... Is there anyone able to find it? Thanks

Jeremy · 1 year ago

ROCK!

I had a user with this problem...got rid of the bad drive, cleared it right up.

Thanks a ton!

Arghhg · 1 year ago

Yeah great, then when I go back to the place where I have my 15 mapped drives I have to re-connect them all.

Just great, yeah... really f*%cking :-(

joe · 1 year ago

that was great it fixed it

Piet · 1 year ago

Visit http://www.microsoft.com/communities/newsgroups...

Jenny · 1 year ago

Oh my, you don't know how much this problem had bugged me. I only wish I had googled it sooner. Thank you thank you thank you!!!!!

elvis · 11 months ago

That worked...It was awesume.. thanks

C Cook · 11 months ago

Thanks so much for this! I though it was related to my fussy RAID array and am glad to know it isn't. I am relieved to know that this is the reason and it was so easy to fix. THANKS!

Pierce · 11 months ago

I owe you a beer.