What is the difference (technical) between "Mapping a drive to a drive letter in My Computer" and "Add a network place in My Network places"? Is one better over the other?

Is there any major differences over a mapped network location over mapped network drive? Is the only main difference that one gets a drive letter that can be shared.

Mapping a network drive assigns a local drive letter to a shared drive that's stored on another computer. For example, assume that: The computer named Desktop shares a folder named Documents. A user on the computer named Laptop wants to access the folder.

I believe the difference is when you map a drive, a drive letter is assigned and you can refer to the location using Z: . If you add a network location, you are merely “bookmarking” that UNC location in your my computer. A mapped network drive (if possible) would give you more “freedom” and functionality compared to a network location.

Step 1: Connect all your computers to the same network. Each computer you wish to use the network drive must be on the same network, either a Wi-Fi or Ethernet. Step 2: Enable network discovery. You need to set your PC to discover other computers on the network to be able to access the network drive. Click the Start Menu and type in Control Panel.