If you integrate a network drive in Windows Explorer, this does not apply system-wide but only for the current user account. This means that you cannot access this network drive in an application that runs with administrator rights. This can be changed easily: Create a new DWORD (32 bit) named EnableLinkedConnections with the value 1 in the registry under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SOFTWARE \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Policies \ System and restart. Integrated network drives are then visible everywhere.