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Using Symlinks in Windows Vista

One of the long-awaited features in Windows Vista was the ability to use symbolic links, the way you can in linux. Sadly, they don't work quite as well as they could, but it's a big upgrade from prior versions, and has solved a number of problems for me already.

Using the mklink Command

The command that you need to use is mklink, which you'll use from the command line. Just type it on the command line to see the options:

C:Usersgeek>mklinkCreates a symbolic link.

MKLINK [ [/D] | [/H] | [/J] ] Link Target

        /D      Creates a directory symbolic link.  Default is a file                symbolic link.        /H      Creates a hard link instead of a symbolic link.        /J      Creates a Directory Junction.        Link    specifies the new symbolic link name.        Target  specifies the path (relative or absolute) that the new link                refers to.

For instance, if you wanted to make the folder C:\Users\Geek\TestFolder available from C:\TestFolder as well, you could use the following command.

C:\mklink /D C:\TestFolder C:\Users\Geek\TestFolder
symbolic link created for C:\TestFolder <<===>> C:\Users\Geek\TestFolder

Now if you look in C:\TestFolder directory, you'll see whatever files were in the other directory.