One icon on the default Windows NT 5.0 desktop has changed conspicuously since the release of Windows NT 4.0. Network Neighborhood, the stalwart network resources browser from previous versions of Windows, has been replaced in Windows NT 5.0 with "My Network Places," a cutesy name for a disarmingly different piece of functionality. One might assume that My Network Places is simply a renamed Network Neighborhood.
One would be wrong with such an
assumption.
Enhanced network browsing
The
My Network Places folder offers several enhancements over its
replacement, incorporating the results of user studies that explored how
people actually use network resources. My Network Place?s default view (picture)
no longer displays all of the network resources (machines, shares,
printers and the like) that exist in your workgroup or domain. Rather,
the view offers the following icons:
- Add Network Place -- Adds a new "Network Place" shortcut (see below).
- Entire Network -- A holdover from Network Neighborhood; this allows you to browser other domains and workgroups on your network.
- Computers Near Me -- This option will present you with a list of network resources in your domain or workgroup; this is similar to what you?d see in Network Neighborhood by default (picture).
Let's add some software
You can manually add a network place, with a friendly name of your choosing, by clicking the "Add Network Place" option in My Network Places. This is consistent with the user interface in other parts of Windows NT, such as the ?Make a New Network Connection? option in Networking Connections. The Add Network Place dialog (picture) allows you to create a shortcut to a network resource by typing in the UNC path to the resource or by browsing to its location (picture). Finally, you can give this resource a friendly name (picture) that will identify it in My Network Places (picture).
You can manually add as many resources
as you?d like this way: Since this is a one-time process, it?s not
much to ask of the user. On the other hand, Windows NT will also
implicitly create shortcuts to resources you tend to visit often. This
allows you to get to these resources without manually navigating to them
or manually creating a shortcut. This is described in the next section.
Automatic network resource display
Let's say you access a particular folder on a network share constantly.
The simple act of navigating to that share is tracked by Windows NT and,
after a couple of a sessions of navigating manually to that location, a
shortcut to that share will be placed automatically in the root level of
My Network Places. The name of the shortcut will automatically default to
[SHARE NAME] ON '[MACHINE NAME]' (picture),
though you are free to change it, of course.
I'm not aware of the exact rules for the
creation and deletion of automatic resource shortcuts, but it goes
something like this: Once you accessed a resource a few times, a shortcut
will be created. If you fail to access this shortcut over a longer period
of time, it will be automatically deleted. It should be noted that any
shortcuts you manually create will not be automatically deleted, however.
Conclusion
My
Network Places is an excellent example of Microsoft taking a good idea
from previous versions of Windows--in this case, Network
Neighborhood--and improving it in Windows NT 5.0. The improvements to
this feature are clearly based on feedback about the way that users
actually work with network resources and, while the differences between
Network Neighborhood and My Network Places may be disarming to the
seasoned NT jockey, don't be put off by it. You'll quickly grow to love
the way it simplifies--and improves--your ability to use and find network
resources.
