Deploying Drive Mappings via Intune Without GPO

If you're moving to Entra ID (Azure AD) joined devices, one of the first things you lose is GPO-based drive mappings. Intune doesn't have a native "map a drive" profile, so you need a PowerShell script.

Here's a clean, production-ready approach.

The script

# Deploy-DriveMappings.ps1
# Maps network drives for Intune-managed devices
# Run as: User context (not SYSTEM)
 
$driveMappings = @(
    @{
        Letter = "S:"
        Path   = "\\fileserver\shared"
        Label  = "Shared"
    }
    @{
        Letter = "H:"
        Path   = "\\fileserver\home\$env:USERNAME"
        Label  = "Home"
    }
)
 
foreach ($drive in $driveMappings) {
    $letter = $drive.Letter.TrimEnd(':')
 
    # Remove existing mapping if present
    if (Test-Path "$($drive.Letter)\") {
        Remove-PSDrive -Name $letter -Force -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
        net use $drive.Letter /delete /y 2>$null
    }
 
    try {
        New-PSDrive -Name $letter `
            -PSProvider FileSystem `
            -Root $drive.Path `
            -Persist `
            -Scope Global `
            -ErrorAction Stop
 
        if ($drive.Label) {
            $shell = New-Object -ComObject Shell.Application
            $shell.NameSpace("$($drive.Letter)\").Self.Name = $drive.Label
        }
 
        Write-Output "Mapped $($drive.Letter) -> $($drive.Path)"
    }
    catch {
        Write-Error "Failed to map $($drive.Letter): $_"
        exit 1
    }
}

Deploying via Intune

1. Go to Devices > Scripts and remediations > Platform scripts
2. Click Add > Windows 10 and later
3. Upload the .ps1 file
4. Set Run this script using the logged on credentials to Yes
5. Set Run script in 64 bit PowerShell Host to Yes
6. Assign to your device group

Key details

| Setting | Value | Why | |---|---|---| | Run as | User context | Drive mappings need the user's token for network auth | | 64-bit host | Yes | Avoids WoW64 path issues | | Enforce script signature check | No (or sign the script) | Up to your org's policy |

Troubleshooting

Drives don't appear after login: Intune scripts run after the desktop loads. There's a delay — usually 5-15 minutes on first run. After that, the -Persist flag keeps them across reboots.

Access denied errors: The user account must have permissions to the UNC path. This script runs as the user, not SYSTEM, so it uses their credentials.

Script runs but drives vanish: Check if another policy or script is removing them. The Remove-PSDrive cleanup at the top handles stale mappings, but conflicts with other drive-mapping tools (like a lingering GPO) can cause issues.

When to use this vs. other approaches

• FSLogix is better if you need profile containers and drive mappings together
• SharePoint / OneDrive is better if you're moving file shares to the cloud
• This script is the right call when you have on-prem file servers and Entra-joined devices with line-of-sight to the server (VPN or on-network)