QNSM stands for Quick Network Share Mounter and is a sort of bookmark and session management tool for network mapped drives. It was specifically designed for the ICT Administrator who visits a lof of different clients and thus, visiting a lot of different network setups. This tool works regardless of remembered passwords and to which domain you belong, and there are many advantages to this "crude" tool.

NOTICE: before reporting bugs, make sure you have the latest version installed.

Project Page

1. Flavours
2. Advantages and disadvantages
3. System requirements
4. License
5. Version history

Flavours

There are two flavours of this tool available:

• The installable edition, which is the recommended version for most, gets installed on your computer and by default stores its share list in your user's profile. The settings are stored in the Windows registry.
• The portable edition doesn't get installed but is rather kept in a folder, somewhere on an USB disk or somewhere else. By default, bookmarks are stored in the same folder where the tool is started from, and settings are saved in an INI-file in the same folder, leaving no trace in the Windows registry or in your user's profile.

Depending on your needs, you can download the installer which installs QNSM on your computer, or the ZIP archive with the portable edition, and unpack it in a folder of your choice.

There are no differences or limitations in the two editions. Apart from the default bookmark location, and how they store their settings, they are identical.

Advantages and disadvantages

Why use QNSM?

• Only map network drives when you need them: by not keeping them as persistent connections, you speed up your computer because it doesn't have to look for network shares that aren't available.
• Don't remember passwords in Windows: the tool can remember passwords for you, and the main advantage is that this allows you to create bookmarks for the same server with different credentials, which is often a hassle when you choose to remember username/password in Windows.
• No cluttering: the tool is easy and straight-forward. Everything is stored in a single file. No database connection or SQL instance is required. It does only what it advertises and nothing more.

Why not use QNSM?

QNSM was originally intended for my personal use. Therefore, it lacks several things any industrial-grade tool should have:

• Passwords and entries are stored unencrypted in a plain text file!
  If you wish to store your credentials, take the necessary precautions to ensure the file is stored safely (e.g. use EFS or some other encryption mechanism to keep your credentials safe.
• The tool does only what is advertised and nothing more. It has no other fancy things and is probably superseded by other tools that do the same thing with more and better features.
• There's no online help or other support available for this product, though bug reports are welcome. Use the contact form or comment section on this page to report them.

Furthermore, this software is provided "as-is" and comes with no warranty whatsoever. It is to be used at your own risk. We are not liable if any damage occurs, directly or indirectly, or if any data stored with this tool is exposed due to lack of precautions and security measures.

System requirements

The tool has no specific requirements as it is a plain C++ application. No .NET Framework is needed. You do need at least Windows 2000 though, as several functions are used that are only present in that version or higher.

License

QNSM is licensed under a BSD-like license:

Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are met:

• Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
• Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
• Neither the name of Black Manticore nor the names of its contributors may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software without specific prior written permission.

THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND CONTRIBUTORS "AS IS" AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED.
IN NO EVENT SHALL Black Manticore BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.

Version history

v1.11 -- 2016/08/01

• Minor tweaks to the UI.
• Added ability to duplicate an existing entry.
• Added shares file export and import function (for an even easier backup and restore).
• Fixed accelerator keys in the Settings dialog.

v1.10 -- 2016/05/27

• Fixed a problem with the MRU list being loaded in reverse order.

v1.09 -- 2016/04/16

Note: this is probably the last version (unless there are bugs to fix).

• Redesigned UI to be more Windows theme-aware, including system fonts and support for more recent versions of Windows.
• Added access to "Unmount any" dialog in the tray menu to enable usage of the multiple shares unmount from the tray menu.
• Sorting of the shares list can now be changed at the column-level by clicking on the column header. It used to be fixed on the first column.
• Added ability to add share to list upon successful connection when using the "Connect to" dialog.
• Internal changes to code (nothing that's externally visible).
• Improved error indications in dialogs (missing/invalid input).
• Added a global hotkey to the "Connect to" dialog so it can be called from anywhere.

v1.08 -- 2014/09/23

• Fixed issue with the optional exit prompt blocking Windows from shutting down, restarting or logging off. Also fixed broken "close to tray" after answering "no" to the exit prompt.
• Fixed issue with main window not properly minimizing after a succesful mount and the options "minimize after mount" and "minimize to notification area" or "minimize and close to notification area"was enabled.

v1.07 -- 2014/09/08

• Fixed issue with application not being completely hidden (was visible on the taskbar) when starting with /hidden parameter (e.g. when automatically starting with Windows). Also fixed the resulting bug of the main window not restoring properly when the application was started hiddenly.
• Fixed bug where unmounting multiple shares in the "Unmount any share" dialog did not properly work (it only unmounted the first or first two, depending on the selection).
• Fixed a small bug in the "Connect to" dialog where entering a username and/or password, then checking "Use current credentials" would still use the filled in username and/or password.
• Fixed "Mount" in the context menu of the shares list so it does not open when "Automatically open in Explorer" is enabled. This now differentiates the way the context menu and toolbar buttons work. Also fixed the bug where the default highlighted action of the context menu did not properly switch when the selection changed.
• The drive letter on the "Connect to" is now optional. If not set (i.e. "auto"), a free drive letter will be automatically selected.
• Introduced ability to automatically assign a free drive letter in the "Connect to" dialog
• Adapted input validation on the drive letter in the "Connect to"dialog: although it's no longer possible to not select a drive letter (this behaviour was replaced with "auto-select letter"), it may still be possible there are no more free drive letters available.
• Tray icon in notification area: added option to close to tray icon on top of minimizing to tray.
• Added optional exit confirmation prompt, in case users wish to avoid accidental program exits. This can be toggled in the Settings dialog.
• If an error occurs during the saving of the shares list during a program exit, an error is displayed and the program exit can be cancelled.
• Added option to minimize main window after successfully mounting a share. When multiple shares are being mounted, all shares must mount succesfully for the window to minimize.
• Slightly rearranged options in the Settings dialog.
• The keyboard shortcut Ctrl+A to select all items in a list now works in the main window (shares list) and the "Unmount any share" dialog (list of mounted shares).
• Redesigned toolbar: separated the toolbar into logical parts, and made them togglable. Added a "Reset toolbars" menu item in case user decided to hide all toolbars.
• Added better visualisation that input fields are disabled during a mount/unmount operation (not for upcoming 1.10).

v1.06 -- 2014/08/15

• Changing location of shares file is no longer requires a program restart (it is now applied immediately upon changing). Also, the extension is now added automatically (defaults to "ini"). The same applies to the MRU list.
• Added a button to unmount shares on the "Connect to" dialog.
• Changed font sizes a little bit to accomodate with higher DPI settings. Also checks to see whether a certain font (Segoe UI in Windows 7/8) is available for use and switches to it if it is available. Otherwise it sticks to the default (Tahoma or MS Sans Serif, depending on availability).
• Fixed not saving shares when exiting the app from the tray menu.
• Fixed a bug with the alternate shares location not being saved if the file did not exist during saving of configuration parameters to disk (i.e. when renaming to a new shares file that did not yet exist).
• The username during prompted credentials is now also added to the users MRU list.
• Added ability to do in-place changing of the description, i.e. the "renaming", of a share. Select a share, then click again on the description, or press F2 to change the description from within the shares list.
• Changed default position of some of the dialogs to screen center.
• Fixed issue where cancelling a credential prompt would still attempt to mount a share.
• Added an additional check to handle if a drive letter is being mapped by another program while that letter is still selectable in the "connect to" dialog.

v1.05 -- 2014/06/10

• Fixed "busy" icon not always showing in shares list when mounting a share.
• Fixed critical "first-run" bug in Installable Edition where the folder %APPDATA%\QNSM does not get created automatically.
  This problem does not occur with the Portable Edition.

v1.04 -- 2014/06/04

• Fixed big problem with logging in with current credentials not working, causing an "extended error 0". I've also changed the behaviour of the credentials prompt when no user/pass has been filled in (which is the same as logging in with current credentials). Now the program will first attempt a mount with current credentials (as Windows would do). If that fails, then a credential prompt will pop up, along with a reason why the prompt has appeared. The behaviour when a username but no password has been specified, remains unchanged.
• Further improved and squashed some bugs in error handling when mounting/unmounting shares.
• Forgot to add "use current Windows-logon credentials" to the "Connect to" dialog, which is now fixed. Also added "Connect to" to the tray menu.
• Added MRU for user names and the ability to clear both lists independently (from Settings dialog).
• Enabled hotkeys for drive selection boxes (in "Connect to" and share editing dialogs) so you can press letters on your keyboard to quickly select a drive letter.
• The "do not use MRU" is no longer ignored: new items do not get added to the list (before, they were not saved to disk, but still added during runtime).
• Fixed "browse for MRU" button in the Settings dialog + you can now reset the values back to their defaults.
• Added ability to open shares in Windows Explorer when they are being mounted. This can be set to automatic (only when a single share is mounted) through "Settings" dialog. This option is also added to the "Connect to" dialog. Additionally, mounted shares can be opened through the "Open" function in the context menu. As a result of this new function, the keyboard shortcut for "Connect to" has changed to Ctrl+C, Ctrl+O is now mapped to "Open".
• Implemented multi-select in the shares list so you can mount/unmount/delete more than one share at a time. I also added a "busy" icon so you can better tell which share is being operated on. Additionally, the behaviour when hitting Enter is changed to better match expected behaviour when more than one share is selected, along with the new "Open" function.
• Added "Save now" function to immediately save the shares list to disk (instead of only when exiting).

v1.03 -- 2014/05/20

• Improved error handling and additional checks.
• Added ability to unmount any network drive (not only those in the bookmarks list), through the main program (as a dialog) and through the tray icon in the notification area (as a menu).
• Added tool tips to the toolbar buttons (main window).
• Added option to use current Windows-logon credentials (this was sort-of already implicitly present by leaving username and password fields blank).

v1.02 -- 2014/05/12

• Added options for starting (minimized) with Windows (not for PE), and icon for notification area.

v1.01 -- 2014/04/22

• Fixed issue with saving configuration when there are only default values (particularly impacts portable edition, creating a useless INI-file).

v1.00 -- 2014/04/20

• First public release.