Link Shell Extension offers a lot more options for various types of symlinks but you should stick with the simple ones for now.Īnother way to use the extension, which happens to be even easier, is to drag and drop files with the right mouse button. After copying the link source, head over to the secondary location, right-click on an empty space and select the “Drop as…” option. This simple little option allows you to pick the original folder like we saw before with Symlinker. Once everything is finished, right-click on a file or folder and you will see a new option that reads “Pick Link Source”. Do it immediately otherwise the Link Shell Extension will not work until you either restart Explorer or your system. When the installation is over, you will be asked to restart Windows Explorer. Make sure you download the correct one (圆4 or x86 for 32-bit systems) and then install the extension like any other app. Before downloading the Link Shell Extension, you must first download the VCRedist packages via the provided links. Start by visiting the Link Shell Extension Downloads section. Link Shell ExtensionĪnother incredibly easy and useful tool that uses Windows/File Explorer and the context menu (right-click menu) for all your symlink needs. Once you get the gist of it, linking files and folders will become incredibly easy so do not worry if you get a couple of things wrong the first few times. To do that, here is what your settings would look like in Symlinker. Finally, select the type of link from the dropdown menu at the bottom and click on the “Create Link” button to produce your very first symbolic link.Īs an example, say that I want to link my entire music collection, which I have stored on my HDD, to the actual music library in Windows, which is hosted on the system partition. In the Destination Folder field, enter the path to the actual folder you want to link. In the “Now give a name to the link” field, enter the name of the folder or file you want to create. Then, select the folder where you want to place your link. First of all, select whether you want to link a file or a folder via the dropdown menu at the top. Once you run Symlinker/Symlink Creator, you will see a variety of fields that you need to fill out. I would suggest downloading the Standalone Executable as it will allow you to run the app without installing anything. My favorite one so far has been Symlinker as it is incredibly simple and can be used by anyone. There are plenty of applications that can help you create symbolic links and they are all more or less the same. Furthermore, you should always make sure that files and folders you link to symbolically are not in use by other applications at that time. The only thing I would like to note is that you must never create symbolic links inside symbolic links as this might lead to an infinite loop which you do not want to deal with. There are plenty of other uses which you can explore once you are more familiar with symbolic links. You can store multimedia files in any drive and have them show up in the default multimedia locations (Music, Pictures, Videos) so that all media players will be able to detect them instantly. You can consolidate the settings, profiles, and user data from all of your apps into a single location. For example, you can create symlinks in OneDrive, Google Drive, Dropbox, and other cloud storage services so that you can keep your files in their original location and sync them on the cloud at the same time. There is a huge number of situations where symbolic links can save the day and it really depends on how you want to use your computer. Symbolic links – Common uses and warnings To fix that, you can create a symbolic link that will make it seem as if your games and apps were installed in the “C:” drive and there would be no difference whatsoever. The problem is that many apps and games, especially older ones, can run into issues when they are installed outside the system partition. When your Windows drive runs out of space, you will probably want to install games and software on the second drive. To better understand the concept, imagine that you have two different drives, one for Windows (C:) and one for backups, movies, music, and everything else you wish to store (D:).
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