UNC Path (Concept)

UNC Path is a conceptual term that refers to UNC (Universal Naming Convention) which is a standard used in Microsoft Windows for accessing shared network folders.

These names consist of a host machine name, a share name, and an optional file path.  Drive letters (C:, D:, etc.) are not used in UNC path names.  UNC paths must be fully qualified, meaning the entire path location must be typed out, starting with the top most directory in the hierarchy (such as the server's name). This disambiguates file and folder locations on one networked machine from another.  The UNC convention for Windows paths is as follows:

\\host-name\file_path

It is always best practice to use UNC paths. Mapped and local drive references may not be accessible to other users or machines.