@WNCRfleman: See https://winscp.net/eng/docs/task_navigate#manual

I'm using version 5.19.2 of WinSCP and cannot figure out how to connect to an actual UNC path as a file source. Is there a way to do that or am I required to map a drive letter to the path?

@AdamLS:
1) Is the initial local panel path (stored in your INI file) on the network folder?
2) If you start WinSCP with an empty INI file, does it default to a network path in the local panel?

I'm having the same issue on a virtual desktop with folder redirection enabled. I'm launching the portable version (5.17.6) with /ini=%appdata%\WinSCP.ini. The ini path is not being redirected, but it still takes about a minute to launch. When I procmon'd it, WinSCP is querying the root directory of our folder redirection share for the folder contents which is tens of thousands of user folders.

I did have the UNC path mapped as a network drive for other applications that require it, so I unmapped the path and tried again, same result.

@anniec: Is the network drive with the documents folder mapped? That could explain it.
I've realized that the fix works only, if the documents folder uses UNC path.
I've changed that:
Issue 1869 – Do not default to Documents folder on a network drive even if it is mapped

I'm sending you an email with a development version of WinSCP to the address you have used to register on this forum.

Hi @martin, I just tried the new WinSCP version 5.17.5. It took about 5 minutes to launch. We installed WinSCP in our Citrix Terminal Server environment. We do folders redirection, when a user logon to the Citrix server, his documents folder is redirecting to a network shared drive. I believe this is why launching WinSCP takes long time in our environment since the default directory is set "documents' (no issue when using the older version like 5.13.9 as I mentioned before). I wonder is there a way to set different default directory manually when install WinSCP?

Thanks, Annie

UNC paths are supported since 5.14 only:
Issue 133 – Browse local UNC paths

Thanks for the response.
FYI: Version 5.13.9 doesn't seen to have the issue, it is not support UNC path.

Just open another drive in WinSCP. It will remember it. And the next time, it will start in the other folder.

The next version of WinSCP will never default to a networked drive:
Issue 1809 – Do not default to Documents folder on a network drive

We have installed 5.15.9 on our Windows 2016 server. When a user logon to the server, the document folder is redirected to \\server\home$\userID\documents. When launch WinSCP, it takes about 8 to 10 minutes to start, because it takes long time to access \\server\home$\userID\documents. If I mapped \\server\home$\userID\documents to a drive. It will be loading faster. Any idea?

Thanks,
Annie