Mapped network drive won’t reconnect

Hi All,
Thank you for your help!
I have an XP pc that when rebooted the mapped network drive is mapped but it is not reconnected until I open Windows Explorer and click on the drive.

I have an app that accesses a database on the mapped drive but the app wont work until Explorer is opened and the mapped network drive is clicked on.

The red “X” is present both before and after clicking on it.

Microsoft has acknowledged this issue as normal as per Knowledge Base Article KB 283492.

?????

Any Ideas??