USB drives and mapped drive letter conflicts

In Windows XP, I always had problems with clients who wanted to use USB
drives in a corporate environment where drives are mapped via scripts to low
drive letters. USB drives always took the next available PHYSICAL drive
letter, even if it was already in use by a mapped drive. You have to manually
go into Drive Management and change the drive letter to get the USB drive to
show up. After that, it will remember the drive letter, but there were no end
to the complaints about the process.

It appears this "problem" still exists in Windows Vista. It was in Beta 2,
and I just loaded up the July CTP hoping it was fixed. I mapped a network
share to E: (my next available drive letter), plugged in a USB drive...AND
THE EXACT SAME THING HAPPENED!

I can't believe this issue still exists in Vista. I really hope this is just
a fluke in this build, and the issue has been resolved in non-public betas.
It seems such a simple issue for the hardware to check what drive letters are
actually available, or if mapped drives exists, to pop a prompt asking what
drive letter you want.

PLEASE look into this issue, as it does cause a lot of trouble in the
corporate world where drives are usually not mapped from Z: backwards, but
from F: on up.

----------------
This post is a suggestion for Microsoft, and Microsoft responds to the
suggestions with the most votes. To vote for this suggestion, click the "I
Agree" button in the message pane. If you do not see the button, follow this
link to open the suggestion in the Microsoft Web-based Newsreader and then
click "I Agree" in the message pane.

http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/com...rdware_devices