Review DFS Namespaces Client Requirements

The following operating systems include full support for DFS Namespaces, including support for client failback to the preferred folder target:

• Windows 7
  
  
• Windows Server 2008 R2
  
  
• Windows Server 2008
  
  
• Windows Vista Business, Windows Vista Enterprise, Windows Vista Ultimate
  
  
• Windows Server 2003 R2
  
  
• Windows Storage Server 2003 R2
  
  
• Windows Server 2003 with SP2, or SP1 and the Windows Server 2003 client failback hotfix
  
  
• Windows XP Professional with SP3, or SP2 and the Windows XP client failback hotfix
  
  

These hotfixes are described in article 898900 in the Microsoft Knowledge Base (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=53202).

Users who are running the following operating systems can access namespaces, but if a folder target becomes unavailable and then later comes back online, the computer will not fail back (return) to the preferred folder target.

• Windows Storage Server 2003
  
  
• Windows XP Professional
  
  
• Windows Preinstallation Environment (Windows PE)
  
  (Windows PE can access stand-alone namespaces, but it cannot access domain-based namespaces.)
  
  
• Windows 2000 Server
  
  
• Windows 2000 Professional