What Are Symbolic Links
When you create a shortcut for a file or folder, all you are doing is pointing it to that specific file or folder, nothing more. Symbolic links are much more than a simple shortcut. They act as a virtual file or folder that links to the actual file or folder. When you create a symlink for a file, it appears as if it is the actual file, when in reality it is redirecting you towards the real file in the background. Besides files, you can also create symlinks for folders. Simply put, a symlink is nothing more than a build of the text string which lets the operating system know that it is just a path for another file or folder.
For instance, most cloud service apps you install will only sync files and folders located in their own folder. But there will be times when you might have a folder in some other drive which you want to sync with the cloud storage service. However, you don’t want to move the folder from its actual location or don’t want to create a copy of the folder. In those situations you can simply create a symlink in the cloud service folder so that you can sync the contents of the target folder without actually moving or copying the real folder.
Since a symlink is just a virtual folder that just acts as a path to the real folder, you don’t have to worry about the symlink consuming your disk space.
Create Symbolic Links Using Command Prompt
Open Command Prompt. (Note: It must be Admin Mode)
Must be this format.
mklink Link Targetyou can create symlinks for entire directories. To do that, use the below command. The switch /D allows you create a symlink for a directory or folder.
mklink /D "E:\Path\Symlink_Folder" "F:\TargetFolder"