Windows network drive letter converted to UNC path

[PeppoDX]

Hello,
we are facing an issue which prevents us to open new projects located in a network path.
We have a network drive mapped to a letter (eg. Z:)
When we try to open a project from that drive, selecting the drive letter from the browse window, netbeans converts that drive letter to the UNC path (eg. \\share). However netbeans (and CMD) can't work with UNC paths and so it fails.

Is this a problem with the Netbeans installation or with some Windows configuration?
Is there a way to solve this without formatting the pc?

Waiting for a kind response have a good day.

Thank you.

[neilcsmith-net]

Please take a look at #8611