MKLINK «E:\Test 2\sf» «E:\11 Video Files\Editor[27].mp4»

But, using these software are definitely easier than writing the command on command prompt.

My Favorite Symlink Creator Software For Windows:

Symlink Creator is my favorite software because it lets you create both symlink and hard link of both files and folders. Plus, it is the only software that provides symlink creation command on its interface.

You can also check out lists of best free Broken Link Checker and Broken Shortcut Fixer software for Windows.

Symlink Creator

Symlink Creator is a free symlink creator software for Windows. It lets you create symbolic links (shortcuts) of various types of files like image files, video files, documents, etc. Plus, shortcuts of installed or portable software can also be made through this software. Using it, you can make two types of symlink named file symbolic link (for files) and directory symbolic link (for folders).

In this software, you can also create a hard link of a file or folder. Hard links are slightly different than the symlink as symlinks create a shortcut of a file, while hard link creates a copy of file or folder in the destination folder. Similar to symlinks, you can create two types of hard links named file hard link (for files) and directory hard links (for folders).

The process of creating a symlink is pretty simple as you just need to select the type of link, source folder, and destination folder from the interface. After that, click the create button to create symlink of input file or folder. If you want to create symlink through command prompt, then you can copy the command from its interface after selecting parameters (file type, source, and destination folder) and paste it to command prompt.

Overall, Symlink Creator is just a GUI of a MLINK command of the Windows.

Windows Symbolic Link Maker

Windows Symbolic Link Maker is another free symlink creator software for Windows. Besides symlink, you can also make hard link through this software. There is one limitation with hard link that it can only create hard links of files and not of folders. However, symlinks of both files and folders can be created.

To create symlinks, first, select file link (for files) or directory (for folders) from link type menu. After that, select the source file or folder from Link target option and output location from link file. Lastly, press the make link button to make a symlink. A symlink or shortcut file of few kilobytes will appear on destination folder, through which you can access the output file or folder.

Similar to symlinks, you can create a hard link of a file by ticking the hardline checkbox and selecting the source and destination folder. In case of hard links, you will actually get a copy of source file to the destination folder.

Symlink Manager

Symlink Manager is a free and portable symlink creator software for Windows. Using it, you can create a symlink of a file (movies, songs, documents, etc.) as well as a folder. Not just symlinks, it can also be used to create hard links for both files and folders.

The process of creating symlinks is pretty simple. You need to select file or directory symbolic link option from symlink type menu. File symbolic link option is used to create a symlink of a file, whereas directory symbolic link option is used to create symlink of a folder.

Now, to create hard link of a file or a folder, select hard link or directory hard link option from the symlink type menu, respectively. After selecting the appropriate options, press the create symlink button to create a hard link of a file/folder.

WinbolicLink

WinbolicLink is a completely free and simple symlink creator software for Windows. It is capable of creating both symbolic links as well as hard links. This software has one let down that it can not create symlinks and hard links of files. Still, it can create a symlink of a folder. This software uses Windows inbuilt functionality to create both symlinks and hard links.

This freeware comes with two inbuilt file explorers, one is to select a folder to place the symlink and other is to select a folder to create its symlink. After selecting folders, name the symlink folder and press shell link button to create a symlink and NTFS junction button to create a hard link.

In case of symlink, a shortcut of a folder is created inside the destination folder; whereas in hard link, an actual copy of the folder is created inside the destination folder.

Portable Symbolic Link Creator

Portable Symbolic Link Creator, as the name suggests, is another free and portable symlink creator software for Windows. With the help of this software, you can create symlinks, hard links, and directory links of both files and folders. It uses Windows built-in functions which are normally accessible through the command line to create symlinks. Basically, it is just a graphical interface for the Windows inbuilt functions for those users who don’t want to create symlinks through the command line.

To create symlink, first, select symlink type (files/folder) and then type of link (symbolic link, hard link, and directory junction) from the interface. After that, provide the path of output folder (where you want to create the shortcut) in link file input box. Now, enter the path of a file or folder whose symlink you want to create in destination file input box. Lastly, press the create link button to create the selected link type.

Symlinks in Windows 10!

Overview

Symlinks, or symbolic links, are “virtual” files or folders which reference a physical file or folder located elsewhere, and are an important feature built in to many operating systems, including Linux and Windows.

The Windows’ NTFS file system has supported symlinks since Windows Vista. However, it hasn’t been easy for Windows developers to create symlinks. In our efforts to continually improve the Windows Developer experience we’re fixing this!

Starting with Windows 10 Insiders build 14972, symlinks can be created without needing to elevate the console as administrator. This will allow developers, tools and projects, that previously struggled to work effectively on Windows due to symlink issues, to behave just as efficiently and reliably as they do on Linux or OSX.

Background

A symlink is essentially a pointer to a file or folder located elsewhere, consumes little space and is very fast to create (compared to copying a file and its contents).

Because of this, developers often replace duplicate copies of shared files/folders with symlinks referencing physical files/folders. Replacing redundant copies of files can save a great deal of physical disk space, and significantly reduce the time taken to copy/backup/deploy/clone projects.

In UNIX-compatible operating systems like Linux, FreeBSD, OSX, etc., symlinks can be created without restrictions.

However, for Windows users, due to Windows Vista’s security requirements, users needed local admin rights and, importantly, had to run mklink in a command-line console elevated as administrator to create/modify symlinks. This latter restriction resulted in symlinks being infrequently used by most Windows developers, and caused many modern cross-platform development tools to work less efficiently and reliably on Windows.

Now in Windows 10 Creators Update, a user (with admin rights) can first enable Developer Mode, and then any user on the machine can run the mklink command without elevating a command-line console.

What drove this change?

The availability and use of symlinks is a big deal to modern developers:

Many popular development tools like git and package managers like npm recognize and persist symlinks when creating repos or packages, respectively. When those repos or packages are then restored elsewhere, the symlinks are also restored, ensuring disk space (and the user’s time) isn’t wasted.

Git, for example, along with sites like GitHub, has become the main go-to-source code management tool used by most developers today.

Figure 1: SCM Tool Trends 2004-2016 (Source, Google)

The use of package managers in modern development has also exploded in recent years. For example, node package manager (npm) served

400 million installs in the week of July 1 st 2015, but served more than 1.2 billion installs just one year later – a 3x increase in just one year! In late June 2016, npm served more than 1.7 billion node packages in just seven days!

Figure 2: npm served 1.2Bn downloads in the first week of July 2016

There are clear drivers demanding that Windows enables the ability to create symlinks to non-admin users:

• Modern development projects are increasingly portable across operating systems
• Modern development tools are symlink-aware, and many are optimized for symlinks
• Windows developers should enjoy a development environment that is at least the equal of others

How to use Symlinks

Symlinks are created either using the mklink command or the CreateSymbolicLink API

mklink

• There is no change in how to call mklink. For users who have Developer Mode enabled, the mklink command will now successfully create a symlink if the user is not running as an administrator.

CreateSymbolicLink

• To enable the new behavior when using the CreateSymbolicLink API, there is an additional dwFlags option you will need to set:

Example Use

In the example below:

• A subfolder folder called “animals” containing three files (cat.txt, dog.txt, and fish.txt)
• (green) The mklink command is executed to create a symlink called “pet.txt” pointing at the “animalsdog.txt” file
• (blue) When the contents of the current folder are listed, the symlink can be seen (yellow)
• (purple) When contents of pet.txt are queried, the content of the referenced file (“dog.txt”) is displayed

Once created, symlinks can be opened, loaded, deleted, etc., just like any other file. Here, the pet.txt symlink is being opened in Notepad (red):

How do I try it?

This new symlinks support first shipped in Windows 10 Insiders Build 14972, and will be formally delivered in Windows 10 Creators Update. We are also working with the owners of open-source community tools such as Git and npm so they know symlink improvements are coming and can make the necessary changes to better support symlinks on Windows.

We encourage you to take this new feature for a spin and be sure to let us know via the Windows 10 Feedback hub or on Twitter etc. (see below). Please sign up for the Windows Insiders program if you haven’t already to try out symlinks!

Как создать символьную ссылку в Windows 10, 8.1, 8, 7

Товарищи, добрый день. Хотя эта тема и не самая популярная, но она мне очень много раз выручала, поэтому я не могу о ней не написать. Итак, что значит термин «символьная ссылка» я возьму из энциклопедии Wikipedia:

Символьная ссылка (также симлинк от англ. Symbolic link, символическая ссылка) — специальный файл в файловой системе, для которого не формируются никакие данные, кроме одной текстовой строки с указателем. Эта строка трактуется как путь к файлу, который должен быть открыт при попытке обратиться к данной ссылке (файлу). Символьная ссылка занимает ровно столько места в файловой системе, сколько требуется для записи её содержимого (нормальный файл занимает как минимум один блок раздела).

По своей сути же, симлинк — это ярлык, который позволяет системе думать, что это не ярлык, а настоящий файл (или папка). К примеру, частое применение символьной ссылок для папок — это установка игры на SSD, с последующем переносом файлов графики на жесткий диск, с целью экономия места на SSD и создание символьной ссылки до исходного места. Игра будет думать, что все файлы находятся в исходной папке. Так же символьные ссылки можно применять когда используются одинаковые файлы в нескольких каталогах, чтобы не вносить правки во все файлы, можно создать с одного файла символьные ссылки и вносить изменения один раз.

Создать символьную ссылку очень просто и сейчас я вам это докажу. Открываем командную строку, нажимаем Win+R, вводим cmd и жмём ОК. Хотя если вы собираетесь работать с системными файлами, может понадобиться командная строка с правами администратора.

Дальше нам нужно ввести команду для создания символьной ссылки, выглядит она следующем образом:

где /j — атрибут создания соединения для каталога. Если вы создаете ссылку на файл, атрибут ставить не надо.

К примеру, если я хочу создать символьную ссылку на папку mklink на локальном диске E, как папку mk на диске С, мне нужно ввести следующую команду (и да, символьная ссылка может называться не так, как исходный файл (папка):

В результате мы получим вот это.

Если же мы хотим создать символьную ссылку на файл, например на файл 1.txt, хранящийся в корне диска E. для использования в виде файла 2.txt. скажем в папке mslink на диске C, команда будет выглядеть вот так:

А на выходе получим вот это.

Резюмируя скажу, что знание возможностей данной функции, открывает большие возможности. С помощью неё я выходил из нескольких ситуаций, когда не хватало свободного пространства, на моем старом SSD, позволяя быстро перенести игру из папки origin на другой диск. Но вариантов использования её гораздо больше, к примеру перенос кэша браузеров, о котором мы поговорим в одной из будущих статей.

Вроде всё. Надеюсь эта статья оказалась вам полезной, обязательно нажмите одну из кнопок ниже, чтобы рассказать о ней друзьям. Также подпишитесь на обновления сайта, введя свой e-mail в поле справа или подписавшись на группу во Вконтакте и канал YouTube.
Спасибо за внимание