Disconnect network folder

Question

When I try to view a network folder from a different machine, say

\\xyz\Documents

and the current user on my machine does not exist on xyz, I get a prompt to login as a known user to xyz. When I've finished with \\xyz\Documents, how do I logout?

The problem is, if the known user changes his password before my machine is rebooted, my machine will repeatedly try to connect to \\xyz. After whatever the system limit is, the known user's account gets marked as "hacker trying to break in" and the account gets disabled. In order to avoid this, I have to either reset my machine or somehow logout of \\xyz so that my machine no longer tries reconnecting.

This is NOT a mapped drive so I can't unmap it. The question is, other than a reset or logging off, how do I "logout" of \\xyz or detach from \\xyz\Documents so that my machine does not keep on trying to reconnect to \\xyz

Answer 1

On the machine with the stored credential run net use * /delete but not elevated as administrator, and then access the resource again using syntax of the below examples for the username when prompted—I assume you already know this but still adding just in case.

If you want to be more explicit with the deleting of the mounted network location though, you could use the syntax net use \\<Remote Machine Name>\<share name> /delete instead.

Credential prompt syntax examples

<remote machine name>\<username>

or

<remote ip address>\<username>

or

.\<username>

The Windows machine has a stored credential that's cached you are connecting with to the share, and you need to remove it and then try accessing it again. This will force it to use the new credential rather than the one it has cached too.

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Supporting Resource

• net use